Solar Wind Simulations Based on Ooty IPS Data

Abstract:

The solar wind is a constantly-flowing stream of charged particles that expands from the sun's outer atmosphere into interplanetary space. This plasma carries the sun's magnetic field along with it, where it interacts with and causes disruptions in the earth's magnetic field. Our understanding of the solar wind is vital to efforts toward minimizing the impact of these disturbances on both ground and space-based systems. Using interplanetary scintillation data gathered by the ground-based Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) in India, we have constructed boundary maps of solar wind velocities at 1 day intervals. For a simple, first approximation, we use what is called the "P-point" method to crudely estimate the solar wind velocity at the point of closest approach to the Sun along each line of sight. Then we trace the P-point values back to a spherical surface at 0.2 AU where we interpolate them to a structured gird. The resulting boundary maps can serve as the initial input to a time-dependent MHD tomography program being developed at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.