The Effects of Background Solar Wind on the Evolution of Coronal Mass Ejection in August 2010

Several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were observed during 1-4 August 2010. At ~1712UT on 03 August 2010, the Wind spacecraft detected an interplanetary shock followed by two magnetic cloud like (MCL) structures that induced geomagnetic activity. The geomagnetic index, Dst, dropped to -65 nT while one of the MCLs passed through the magnetosphere. A global, three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical model coupled with a kinematic model (HAFv.2), with inputs based on actual solar observations, were used to simulate the response of the three-dimensional heliosphere. HAFv.2 and MHD model were used to simulate regions from 2.5 to 18 solar radii (Rs), and 18 to 285 Rs, respectively. A velocity pulse was used to simulate the major CME on 1 August 2010. The solar disturbances were injected into the lower boundary at 2.5 solar radii. It is found that the background solar wind plays an important role in the evolution of this CME on its way to Earth. We compared the derived solar wind parameters (density, velocity, magnetic field, and temperature) with in-situ observations from Wind near Earth. The simulation demonstrates a useful tool to link the general case of ICME at 1 AU to their solar sources.