MHD Heliosphere with Enhanced Background Solar Wind and Coronal Mass Ejections
Abstract
Our main objective is to improve the quality of our heliospheric simulations by building on the strengths of the Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA)+Enlil model, which NOAA currently uses for operational forecasts of the solar wind and CME propagations to Earth, and therefore to enhance the capability of making reliable predictions of the solar wind conditions at Earth. We will accomplish our goal by developing a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) solar wind model of higher accuracy with time-dependent boundary conditions from the WSA model and ground-based observations. We emphasize that we will estimate the density and temperature for the ambient solar wind at the inner boundary of the heliospheric MHD model from empirical correlations with velocity based on spacecraft data instead of using ad hoc prescriptions as currently done by WSA-Enlil. The proposed work will result in a new heliospheric model consisting of two major components: (a) Improved ambient solar wind structure based on WSA maps and (b) Propagation of CMEs to Earths orbit as flux ropes, which are more realistic than the Cone CME model employed by WSA-Enlil. We will evaluate our model for certain historical CME events by comparing with the current operational model (e.g., WSA+Enlil+Cone) and with in situ measurements at Earths orbit.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 30, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1190039
Entities
People
- Tae Kim
Organizations
- University of Alabama in Huntsville