Collaborative Research: SHINE: Driving Solar Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Simulations with Vector Magnetogram Sequences

Montana State University, Bozeman MT

Investigators

Abstract

The PIs propose to collaborate in developing new techniques for measuring the state of the solar atmosphere and for solving the physical equations governing its evolution. The proposers plan to combine these capabilities so that numerical simulations might be directly driven by observed solar data. To accomplish this, they intend to develop new methods of reducing solar vector magnetogram sequences, optimized for input into simulations as a self-consistent set of boundary conditions for a numerical solution. A semi-implicit code will be used to solve the compressible, time-dependent magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations subject to those initial conditions and boundary conditions. The end-to-end capability provided by these new methods will be demonstrated by performing data-driven simulations of at least three solar active regions. Decades of high-quality observations from ground-based and space-based instruments have led researchers to propose several different models for the origin and evolution of coronal mass ejections. Three-dimensional, time-dependent simulations can demonstrate the viability of these models, provided they are appropriately driven. However, only driving these simulations directly with data can identify the model that best describes reality. This proposal will develop the necessary techniques to perform such a test, and will contribute to the development of a national space weather forecasting capability, which will assimilate ongoing observations into large-scale computer simulations that solve the governing equations. All tools developed under this effort will be made available to the solar physics community and to the public.