Francesco Valentini – Uni Calabria 

Mercoledi 15 Maggio 2019  ore 11, Aula IB09  

The massive campaign of space exploration carried out in the past century has revealed that the vast majority of ordinary matter in the Universe is in the plasma state. Astrophysical plasmas are generally turbulent, and dissipation of turbulent fluctuations leads to continuous plasma heating and acceleration. The near-Earth space plays a key role in the understanding of these phenomena, as it represents an excellent natural laboratory where to perform direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields and plasma properties. In this huge amount of data, the answer to several scientific questions is hidden. In this scenario, the numerical approach is essential to provide support to the interpretation of the observational measurements and to navigate the jungle of data from space.  In this talk, I will present the hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell code employed to model the kinetic dynamics of the interplanetary plasmas. I will discuss the comparison of numerical and observational data, performed through the so-called Virtual Spacecraft (VS) technique, and, finally, concerning the analysis of data from space, I will focus on the research activities planned within the AIDA project, recently funded by the EU within the Horizon 2020 program.

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