SHINE: The Magnetic Connection between the Sun and Heliosphere

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

This multi-faceted research program is designed to address several outstanding problems in solar and heliospheric physics including the observed rigid rotation of coronal holes and the apparent contradictions between solar imaging and in situ observations of the evolution of the sun's open magnetic field. The methodology balances theoretical modeling, large-scale numerical simulation, and the analysis of various solar and heliospheric data sets. Analytic models will be used to investigate various topologies of open and closed magnetic fields during epochs when the solar surface exhibits complex magnetic polarity distributions. Three-dimensional numerical simulations will subsequently be employed to model the dynamical behavior of these topologies, in particular, the interchange reconnection between open and closed magnetic flux. The simulations rely on a new state-of-the-art magnetohydrodynamics code, which encompasses a fully adaptive mesh, and is optimized for all the latest parallel architectures. Such calculations are essential for understanding not only the solar-heliospheric dynamic coupling, but also three-dimensional magnetic reconnection, the basic process central to most of space physics.