3D Numerical Study of Typical CME Event: The 2010-04-03 Event

Abstract:

The coronal mass ejection (CME) event on April 3, 2010 is the first fast CME observed by STEREO SECCHI/HI for the full Sun-Earth line. Such an event provides us a good opportunity to study the propagation and evolution of CME from the Sun up to 1 AU. In this paper, we study the time-dependent evolution and propagation of this event from the Sun to Earth using the 3D SIP-CESE MHD model. The CME is initiated by a simple spherical plasmoid model: a spheromak magnetic structure with high speed, high pressure and high plasma density plasmoid. We find that the results can successfully reproduce the observations in the STEREO A/B COR1 and COR2 field of view and generate many basic structures of the in situ measurement: such as the similar curves of the plasma density and velocity, an increase in the magnetic field magnitude, the large-scale smooth magnetic field rotation and prolonged southward IMF (a well known source of magnetic storms). The MHD model gives the shock arrival time at Earth with an error of ∼ 1.5 hours. Finally, we analyze in detail the propagation velocity, the spread angle, the trajectory of CME. The speed of the CME rapidly increases from near the Sun, then decreases due to interaction with the solar wind ambient. The spread angle of the CME quickly increases due to lateral material expansion by the pressure gradients within the realistic solar wind background, then the expansion decreases with distance and ends until a pressure equilibrium is established. We also study the CME deflection and find that the CME almost does not deflects in the latitudinal and longitudinal direction during its propagation from the Sun to 1 AU.