SHINE Postdoc: Extension of the Breakout Model to More 'Realistic' Coronal Mass Ejections

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will support a postdoctoral to make major improvements to the 3D breakout model for coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and to the tools used to generate the numerical solutions. The postdoctoral intends to run numerical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the breakout model for the first time in magnetic field environments derived from actual observations. He plans to implement potential-field source-source magnetic fields into initialization procedures through spherical harmonic expansions for fields below the source-surface. The postdoctoral will then join these to a force-free open-field solution above the source-surface. He also intends to add more realistic surface motions to the simulations, with the ultimate goal of developing the capacity to input arbitrary photospheric velocity and surface field changes into the evolution of the coronal MHD solution. The postdoctoral will use the results of dedicated flux-emergence calculations to drive the boundary conditions of his breakout eruption simulation, in order to see if the break-out eruption process is, in fact, independent of the specific method used to build up the required free magnetic energy. Finally, the postdoctoral expects to be able to parameterize actual solar surface motions, as derived from local correlation tracking (LCT) calculations, to see if realistic driving can trigger CME eruptions in realistic field configurations.