Using Remote Sensing and In-situ Observations to Advance Numerical MagnetoHydroDynamic (MHD) Simulations of Coronal Mass Ejection Eruptions

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Eruptive solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (or CMEs) are of critical importance for space weather forecasting. This three-year project encompasses a number of the emerging research directions outlined in the recent "Roadmap for Reliable Ensemble Forecasting of the Sun-Earth System" report (Nita et al., 2018). Additionally, the work will advance discovery, while promoting teaching, training, and learning. Furthermore, it will enhance the infrastructure for research and education through networks and partnerships. The project team envisions that a significant portion of the work will be carried out by a postdoctoral research scholar at the SSL of the University of California at Berkeley. The Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PI have experience mentoring and supervising student researchers and the location of the research -- the UC-Berkeley -- presents the opportunity to involve highly-qualified undergraduate and graduate students in space physics research. Results from the work will be disseminated broadly as the PI, Co-PI, and postdoctoral scholar will present their results at national and international scientific meetings (including the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s SHINE Workshop), in colloquia and seminars, and publish them in peer-reviewed journals. This three-year project will combine data analysis, modeling, and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations in order to further our numerical capabilities to model the initiation and evolution of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) on the basis of a first-principles (FP) description of the eruption processes. The project team will examine the corona-to-heliosphere connection of CMEs via their magnetic field and plasma dynamics and the distribution and evolution of plasma heating in the ejecta material and surrounding corona during the eruption process. The project builds upon the innovative and proven foundation of the team's prior work investigating the global structure of enhanced composition within ICMEs, which revealed an intriguing, yet unexplained statistical relationship with the geo-effectiveness of ICMEs. The project is ideally suited for the NSF's Solar-Terrestrial Research (STR) program as it combines the study of FP CME initiation and evolution with observationally-constrained, empirical coronal heating parameterizations in order to generate modeling outputs that can be directly compared to remote and in-situ observations of coronal plasma diagnostics and CME/ICME field and plasma structures. The research and EPO agenda of this project supports the Strategic Goals of the AGS Division in discovery, learning, diversity, and interdisciplinary research. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.