[1] The substorm mechanism is investigated by analyzing the numerical results obtained through the use of the recently refined magnetohydrodynamic model. After showing the growth phase features, the numerical solution reproduces the observed signatures of a substorm onset, including the formation of a near-Earth neutral line (NENL), earthward directed flow in the plasma sheet, a dipolarization, a geosynchronous D deflection, the development of the nightside field aligned currents (FACs), and electrojets in the ionosphere. The onset is triggered by a sudden collapse of the plasma sheet and a successive formation of a high-pressure region in the inner magnetosphere. The energy source of this high-pressure region is the magnetic tension released from the NENL. The tail disturbance is primary transmitted to the ionosphere by the region 2 FAC accompanying the high-pressure region formed in the inner magnetosphere. The associated nightside region 1 FAC is not connected to the traditional current wedge but to the cusp region. The region 1 FAC path to the ionosphere develops from dayside to nightside, so as to construct a grand loop with the region 2 FAC from the partial ring current. In the grand loop, the region 1 FAC provides a short circuit in the ionosphere for the region 2 FAC. In the expansion phase, convection enhances to relax the distorted pressure distribution formed at the onset, accompanied by a further development of dipolarization and a thickening of the plasma sheet in the magnetosphere and increases in the westward and eastward electrojets in the ionosphere. The present model can explain the explosive growth phase and the thinning of the midtail plasma sheet just after the onset.

[1] In the framework of integrated numerical space weather prediction, we have developed a 3-D MHD simulation model of the solar surface-solar wind system. We report the construction method of the model and its first results. By implementing a grid system with angularly unstructured and increasing radial spacing, we realized a spherical grid that has no pole singularity and realized a fine grid size around the inner boundary and a wide-range grid up to a size of 1 AU simultaneously. The magnetic field at the inner boundary is specified by the observational data. In order to obtain the supersonic solar wind speed, parameterized source functions are introduced into the momentum and energy equations. These source functions decay exponentially in altitude as widely used in previous studies.The absolute values of the source functions are controlled so as to reflect the topology of the coronal magnetic field. They are increased inside the magnetic flux tube with subradial expansion and reduced inside the magnetic flux tube with overradial expansion. This adjustment aims to reproduce the variation of the solar wind speed according to the coronal magnetic structure. The simulation simultaneously reproduces the plasma-exit structure, the high-and low-temperature regions, the open and closed magnetic field regions in the corona, the fast and slow solar wind, and the sector structure in interplanetary space. It is confirmed from the comparison with observations that the MHD model successfully reproduces many features of both the fine solar coronal structure and the global solar wind structure.