CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS (CMES) ARE MAJOR DRIVERS OF SEVERE SPACE WEATHER CONDITIONS. THIS IN TURN CAN LEAD TO EXTREME GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY RESULTING IN ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES FOR ASTRONAUTS SATELLITES TRANSMISSION LINES GPS POLAR AIR TRAVEL ETC. OUR BEST DEFENSE AGAINST SUCH EVENTS IS PREDICTING THEM IN ADVANCE AND TAKING APPROPRIATE PRECAUTIONS. IT IS A COMMUNITY BELIEF THAT COMPUTER SIMULATIONS OF PLASMA AT THE SUN IN THE INTERPLANETARY SPACE AND NEAR EARTH ARE GOING TO BE CRUCIAL IN ACCURATE SPACE WEATHER PREDICTION MODELS. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO MODEL CMES PROPAGATING THROUGH THE INTERPLANETARY SPACE IN A REALISTIC BACKGROUND SOLAR WIND (SW). TO OBTAIN SUCH BACKGROUND WE ARE USING PHOTOSPHERIC MAGNETOGRAM DATA FROM DIFFERENT SOLAR OBSERVATORIES. IN PARTICULAR WE PROPOSE TO USE SDO/HMI VECTOR MAGNETOGRAMS WHICH ALLOWS US TO IMPLEMENT MATHEMATICALLY CONSISTENT CHARACTERISTIC BOUNDARY CONDITIONS IN LOWER CORONA. TO SIMULATE CMES WE PROPOSE TO USE FLUX-ROPE-BASED MODELS (GIBSON-LOW TITOV-DEMOULIN ETC.) DRIVEN BY REMOTE OBSERVATIONS FROM SPACE MISSIONS LIKE STEREO SOHO AND SDO. THESE MODELS HAVE ADVANTAGES OVER SUCH POPULAR APPROACHES AS THE CONE AND BLOB MODELS ESPECIALLY WITH THE APPLICATION OF ADAPTIVE MESH REFINEMENT AROUND A CME. IN FACT MAGNETIC FIELD OF A CME PLAYS SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN ITS EXPANSION AND INTERACTION WITH EARTH'S MAGNETOSPHERE. ALSO FLUX-ROPE-BASED CME MODELS ARE IMPORTANT TO EXPLAIN PROCESSES LIKE CME-CME INTERACTION WHICH CAN BE SUPER-ELASTIC IN NATURE PRECISELY DUE TO MAGNETIC FIELD. WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE THIS PROCESS IN OUR PROJECT AS IT IS SHOWN TO BE CONSEQUENTIAL NOT ONLY FOR PREDICTIONS OF CME ARRIVAL TIME AT EARTH BUT ALSO FOR OBTAINING MAGNETIC FIELD COMPONENTS AFFECTING SPACE WEATHER PREDICTIONS. THE INITIAL ATTEMPTS OF CME SIMULATIONS USING OUR OWN MULTI-SCALE FLUID-KINETIC SIMULATION SUITE WITH BOUNDARY CONDITIONS DERIVED FROM MULTIPLE VIEWPOINTS OF STEREO HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL AND DEMONSTRATED STRONG POTENTIAL FOR MODELING SEVERE EVENTS AT EARTH.
$135,000FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
The University Of Alabama In Huntsville