Modeling the May 1, 1998 CME propagation from the Sun to the Earth
Abstract
We present a three-dimensional numerical ideal magnetohydrodynamics model describing the halo coronal mass ejection (CME) of May 1, 1998 propagating from the solar corona to 1 A.U. We begin by developing a realistic global steady-state model of the corona and solar wind in which the magnetic field is derived from synoptic magnetograms. The Archimedian spiral topology of the interplanetary magnetic field is reproduced along with fast and slow speed solar wind. Within this model system, we drive the CME eruption by placing a Gibson-Low magnetic flux rope in the helmet streamer of the pre-event active region. The flux rope is in an initial state of force imbalance and expands at such a rate as to approximate the observed speed of the May 1, 1998 CME. Physics based AMR of the BATS-R-US (Block Adaptive Tree Solarwind Roe Upwind Scheme) code allows us to capture the structure of the CME on a particular Sun-Earth line with high spatial resolution. In particular, we highly resolve the the bow shock ahead of the flux rope as well as to the current sheet behind. We compare our model CME plasma parameters at 1 AU to observed values. In a companion paper, we use the model CME-perturbed solar wind as input for an Earth-Magnetospheric/Ionosphere/Thermosphere simulation and compare the geoffectiveness of the Earth-system model to observations.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003AGUFMSM11D..01M
- Keywords:
-
- 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions;
- 2788 Storms and substorms;
- 7513 Coronal mass ejections;
- 7531 Prominence eruptions;
- 7851 Shock waves