Menura: A code for simulating the interaction between a turbulent solar wind and solar system bodies

Abstract

Despite the close relationship between planetary science and plasma physics, few advanced numerical tools allow bridging the two topics. The code Menura proposes a breakthrough towards the self-consistent modelling of these overlapping fields, in a novel two-step approach allowing for the global simulation of the interaction between a fully turbulent solar wind and various bodies of the solar system. This article introduces the new code and its two-step global algorithm, illustrated by a first example: the interaction between a turbulent solar wind and a comet.