Computer Simulations of Space Plasmas

Even a superficial scanning of the latest issues of the Journal of Geophysical Research reveals that numerical simulation of space plasma processes is an active and growing field. The complexity and sophistication of numerically produced “data” rivals that of the real stuff. Sometimes numerical results need interpretation in terms of a simple “theory,” very much as the results of real experiments and observations do. Numerical simulation has indeed become a third independent tool of space physics, somewhere between observations and analytic theory. There is thus a strong need for textbooks and monographs that report the latest techniques and results in an easily accessible form. This book is an attempt to satisfy this need. The editors want it not only to be “proceedings of selected lectures (given) at the first ISSS (International School of Space Simulations in Kyoto, Japan, November 1–2, 1982) but rather…a form of textbook of computer simulations of space plasmas.” This is, of course, a difficult task when many authors are involved. Unavoidable redundancies and differences in notation may confuse the beginner. Some important questions, like numerical stability, are not discussed in sufficient detail. The recent book by C.K. Birdsall and A.B. Langdon (Plasma Physics via Computer Simulations, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1985) is more complete and detailed and seems more suitable as a textbook for simulations. Nevertheless, this book is useful to the beginner and the specialist because it contains not only descriptions of various numerical techniques but also many applications of simulations to space physics phenomena.