Effect of selecting different simulation configurations on the prediction performance of the Space Weather Modeling Framework regarding ground magnetic perturbations

This study investigates the effect of selecting different simulation configurations of the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) on the predictions of ground magnetic perturbations. A historic geomagnetic storm, the St. Patrick Storm 2015, is simulated with several different model configurations. The objective is to investigate how the different configurations affect the prediction performance regarding ground magnetic perturbations. For each simulation, the modeled ground magnetic perturbations are compared to the measured perturbations from several ground magnetometer stations located at sub-auroral, auroral and polar cap latitudes. Among the magnetometer stations are the Norwegian and Greenland magnetometer chains. The comparison is based on metrics for both ΔB and dB/dt. The SWMF configurations investigated include variations in grid resolution and integration schemes for the MHD equations, and different settings for the inner magnetosphere, the ionosphere electrodynamics, and the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling.