SH41F-02
Simulations and Characteristics of Large Solar Events Propagating Throughout the Heliosphere and Beyond (Invited)
Thursday, 17 December 2015: 08:15
2011 (Moscone West)
Devrie S Intriligator1, Wei Sun1, Thomas R Detman1, Murray Dryer, Ph.D.1, James Intriligator1, Charles S Deehr2, William R Webber3, George Gloeckler4 and William david Miller1, (1)Carmel Research Center, Inc., Space Plasma Laboratory, Santa Monica, CA, United States, (2)University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States, (3)New Mexico State University Main Campus, Las Cruces, NM, United States, (4)University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
Abstract:
Large solar events can have severe adverse global impacts at Earth. These solar events also can propagate throughout the heliopshere and into the interstellar medium. We focus on the July 2012 and Halloween 2003 solar events. We simulate these events starting from the vicinity of the Sun at 2.5 Rs. We compare our three dimensional (3D) time-dependent simulations to available spacecraft (s/c) observations at 1 AU and beyond. Based on the comparisons of the predictions from our simulations with in-situ measurements we find that the effects of these large solar events can be observed in the outer heliosphere, the heliosheath, and even into the interstellar medium. We use two simulation models. The HAFSS (HAF Source Surface) model is a kinematic model. HHMS-PI (Hybrid Heliospheric Modeling System with Pickup protons) is a numerical magnetohydrodynamic solar wind (SW) simulation model. Both HHMS-PI and HAFSS are ideally suited for these analyses since starting at 2.5 Rs from the Sun they model the slowly evolving background SW and the impulsive, time-dependent events associated with solar activity. Our models naturally reproduce dynamic 3D spatially asymmetric effects observed throughout the heliosphere. Pre-existing SW background conditions have a strong influence on the propagation of shock waves from solar events. Time-dependence is a crucial aspect of interpreting s/c data. We show comparisons of our simulation results with STEREO A, ACE, Ulysses, and Voyager s/c observations.
