  An atomic level micromagnetic model of granular recording media is developed
and applied to examine external field-induced grain switching at elevated
temperatures which captures non-uniform reversal modes. The results are
compared with traditional methods which employ the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert
equations based on uniformly magnetized grains with assigned intrinsic
temperature profiles for $M(T)$ and $K(T)$. Using nominal parameters
corresponding to high-anisotropy FePt-type media envisioned for Energy Assisted
Magnetic Recording, our results demonstrate that atomic-level reversal slightly
reduces the field required to switch grains at elevated temperatures, but
results in larger fluctuations, when compared to a uniformly magnetized grain
model.
