Description
Nature and technology are full of dynamics, often involving multiple scales in length, time and energy. To model these processes, we combine scientific computing with model reduction and machine learning, with particular focus on plasma dynamics in lightning and space weather, and in high voltage and plasma technology.
Our research addresses questions in nature such as start and propagation of lightning strokes, terrestrial gamma-ray flashes and space weather, and closely related technological problems such as switch gear for long-distance electricity nets, air purification and disinfection with corona reactors, and protection of satellites and electricity nets from space weather.
Within national and European projects, we collaborate with colleagues in applied plasma physics, electrical and mechanical engineering, atmospheric electricity, and cosmic particle and space science, and with non-academic partners such as ABB, DNV-GL, ESA-ESTEC and NASA.
Find more about our work (including publications) on the personal homepages of the staff scientists:
- Ute Ebert (group leader)
- Enrico Camporeale
- Jannis Teunissen
and on the page with our numerical codes for Multiscale Plasma Dynamics.
View a photo of the Multiscale Dynamics group in June 2022, January 2020 and in January 2018.
Vacancies
No vacancies currently.
News
Exploding stars help to understand thunderclouds on Earth
How is lightning initiated in thunderclouds? This is difficult to answer – how do you measure electric fields inside large, dangerously charged clouds? It was discovered, more or less by coincidence, that cosmic rays provide suitable probes to measure electric fields within thunderclouds. This surprising finding will be published in Physical Review Letters on April 24nd.
Creation of antimatter from lightning simulated for the first time
In severe thunderstorms electric fields can become so high, that high energy radiation – such as X-rays and gamma rays - can be generated. Even antimatter can be formed. The highly complex interactions between high electric fields and particles in thunderstorms were not well modelled yet. Christoph Köhn, PhD student from research centre Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, modelled and simulated these processes in a new way.
CWI improves discharge models for technical applications
Pulsed electric discharges have important applications, such as purifying polluted air in highway tunnels, disinfection and wound healing. As physical and chemical processes in pulsed discharges occur on a large variety of scales, it is difficult to model them.
Streamers in lightning better understood by new mathematical model
Streamers - electrically conducting channels in gases like air - occur in the early stages of lightning, and in industrial applications.
Current events
Multiscale Dynamics Seminar Ajay Tiwari
- 2022-07-14T14:00:00+02:00
- 2022-07-14T15:00:00+02:00
Multiscale Dynamics Seminar Ajay Tiwari
Start: 2022-07-14 14:00:00+02:00 End: 2022-07-14 15:00:00+02:00
Title: Machine Learning in Space Weather
Abstract: The ever increasing popularity and recent advancements in machine learning (ML) techniques have led to a variety of new tools for resolving traditional and emerging challenging problems more powerfully from data-driven perspectives. There have been various attempts to catalogue Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) observations, in this work we benchmark four of the more popular CME databases for CME time-of-arrival prediction using machine learning methods. We identify the important features in the various databases and quantify the performance of machine learning methods. To this end we have also created an interactive CME ML playground where the databases can be accessed and trained on the cloud.
- Email: Ajay Tiwari
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iCal
Members
Associated Members
Publications
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Bouwman, D.D, Teunissen, H.J, & Ebert, U. (2022). 3D particle simulations of positive air-methane streamers for combustion. Plasma Sources Science and Technology, 31(4), 045023.1–045023.24. doi:10.1088/1361-6595/ac64bf
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Martinez, A. (2022, February 18). Computational investigations of streamers : from input cross sections to evolution of plasma species.
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Wang, Z, Sun, A.B, & Teunissen, H.J. (2022). A comparison of particle and fluid models for positive streamer discharges in air. Plasma Sources Science and Technology, 31(1). doi:10.1088/1361-6595/ac417b
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Moens, N, Sundqvist, J.O, El Mellah, I, Poniatowski, L, Teunissen, H.J, & Keppens, R. (2022). Radiation-hydrodynamics with MPI-AMRVAC: Flux-limited diffusion. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 657, A81.1–A81.14. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202141023
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Francisco, H.L, Teunissen, H.J, Bagheri, B, & Ebert, U. (2021). Simulations of positive streamers in air in different electric fields: Steady motion of solitary streamer heads and the stability field. Plasma Sources Science and Technology, 30(11), 115007.1–115007.14. doi:10.1088/1361-6595/ac2f76
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Tiwari, A.J, Morton, R.J, & McLaughlin, J.A. (2021). A statistical study of propagating MHD kink waves in the quiescent corona. Astrophysical Journal, 919(2), 74.1–74.10. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac10c4
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Francisco, H.L, Bagheri, B, & Ebert, U. (2021). Electrically isolated propagating streamer heads formed by strong electron attachment. Plasma Sources Science and Technology, 30(2). doi:10.1088/1361-6595/abdaa3
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Keppens, R, Teunissen, H.J, Xia, C, & Porth, O. (2021). MPI-AMRVAC: A parallel, grid-adaptive PDE toolkit. Computers & Mathematics with Applications, 81, 316–333. doi:10.1016/j.camwa.2020.03.023
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Bagheri, B, Teunissen, H.J, & Ebert, U. (2020). Simulation of positive streamers in CO2 and in air: the role of photoionization or other electron sources. Plasma Sources Science and Technology, 29(12). doi:10.1088/1361-6595/abc93e
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Camporeale, E, Cash, M.D, Singer, H.J, Balch, C.C, Huang, Z, & Toth, G. (2020). A Gray-Box Model for a Probabilistic Estimate of Regional Ground Magnetic Perturbations: Enhancing the NOAA Operational Geospace Model With Machine Learning. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 125(11). doi:10.1029/2019JA027684
Software
Afivo: A framework for adaptive mesh refinement with geometric multigrid methods
Afivo, short for Adaptive Finite Volume Octree, is a framework for adaptive mesh refinement on quadtree (2D) and octree (3D) meshes with shared memory parallelization (OpenMP) and geometric multigrid methods.
PumpKin: Analyzing complex chemistry models
PumpKin, short for Pathway Reduction Method for Plasma Kinetic Models, is a tool for post-processing results from zero-dimensional plasma kinetics solvers.
Current projects with external funding
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Making plasma-assisted combustion efficient ()
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European Science Cluster of Astronomy & Particle physics ESFRI research infrastructures (ESCAPE)
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Let CO2 spark! Understand breakdown dynamics for high voltage technology and lightning Abstract Sparks, (Let CO2 spark!)
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Plasma for Plants: Towards controlled and efficient plasma-activated water generation for a cleaner environment (Plasma for Plants)
Related partners
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Technische Universiteit Eindhoven