MHD Simulation of a Superflare and Associated Carrington-Scale CME Event From the Young Sun
Abstract
Recent Kepler observations reveal frequent superflares on young active solar-like stars. We present preliminary simulation results for a global eruptive flare from the young-Sun analog Kappa-1 Cet. Our simulation magnetic field initialization is based on a low-order PFSS representation of the observed stellar magnetogram that provides a non-trivial dipolar magnetic field configuration with a significantly warped helmet streamer belt. We use a standard Parker [1958] isothermal solar wind for the coronal atmosphere and energize the closed-field stellar corona with idealized shearing flows parallel to the radial field polarity inversion line. We examine the energy evolution of the global superflare showing a release of 7.1e+33 erg of magnetic free energy over the course of 10 hours while the maximum kinetic energy increase of the CME eruption reaches 2.8e+33 erg, i.e. approximately the strength of the famous 1859 Carrington Event. We use a flare-ribbon geometric proxy to calculate a total unsigned flare reconnection flux of 2.2e+23 Mx and a peak reconnection rate of 8.0e+18 Mx/s. We examine various proxy measures of synthetic emission during the flare and discuss the potential for extreme space weather impacts on the early Earth associated with the CME-driven shock and the CME/ICME flux rope field structure and orientation.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.P43H3844L
- Keywords:
-
- 0317 Chemical kinetic and photochemical properties;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions;
- MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICSDE: 5210 Planetary atmospheres;
- clouds;
- and hazes;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: ASTROBIOLOGYDE: 7974 Solar effects;
- SPACE WEATHER