Hybrid-Vlasov simulations of the Earth´s collisionless bow shock and foreshock region

We present magnetospheric simulation results obtained with the hybrid-Vlasov code Vlasiator. In this model, the ion distribution function is propagated in up to three spatial and three velocity dimensions with Vlasov´s equation, while electrons are treated as a massless charge-neutralising fluid. Therefore ion kinetic effects are fully included in the description. One major strength of the model is the unprecedented quality of the ion distribution functions due to the uniform sampling and the absence of statistical noise. Another strength lies in the robust finite volume algorithm which yields good numerical stability especially in shock modelling.