3D MHD simulations of the May 2, 1998 halo CME: Comparison of CME initiation models and their characteristics at L1
Abstract
We present the results of two numerical models of the partial-halo CME event associated with NOAA AR8210 on May 2, 1998. Our simulations are fully three-dimensional and involve compressible magnetohydrodynamics with turbulent energy transport. We begin by first producing a steady-state solar wind for Carrington Rotation 1935/6, following the methodology described in Roussev et al. (2003). For the first model, we superpose the Gibbson-Low magnetic flux rope into the helmet streamer of AR8210. In the second newer model, instead, we impose shearing motions along the polarity inversion line of AR8210, followed by converging motions, both via the modification of the boundary conditions at the Sun's surface. In the first model, a magnetic flux rope exists in the corona prior to the eruption, whereas in the second model, a flux rope forms from reconnection within the sheared arcade during the CME. In either case, flux ropes are expelled from the Sun, manifesting a partial-halo CME through a highly structured, ambient solar wind. We follow the ejected plasma flows from the corona to the Earth's orbit and compare the time evolution of the solar wind parameters predicted by the two models with satellite observations at the L1 point. With such a comparison, we hope to address much debated issue of whether magnetic flux ropes are a component of the pre-event corona.
- Publication:
-
35th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004cosp...35...77M