Recent Enhancements of the WSA-ENLIL-Cone Modeling System

Abstract:

The WSA-ENLIL-Cone modeling system enables faster-than-real
time simulations of corotating and transient heliospheric
disturbances in the inner heliosphere. This “hybrid” system
does not simulate origin of coronal mass ejections (CMEs)
but uses appearance in coronagraphs, fits geometric and
kinematic parameters, and launches a CME-like hydrodynamic
structure into the solar wind computed using a synoptic
map produce by the Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA) coronal model.
This modeling system provides global context and arrival
times of the solar wind streams and CMEs to Earth, planets,
and spacecraft, and it is used by various space weather
agencies for operational predictions.

However, this system has two main limitations: (1) using
a single WSA map assumes that background solar wind does not
change during the simulation period and (2) launching
of hydrodynamic transients neglects effect of the internal
magnetic field of CMEs during their propagation and interaction
with background structures.

In this presentation, we introduce recent improvements that
adress both issues and that enables continuous simulation
of the evolving solar wind up to Jupiter with more realistic
CME-like structures. First, we use a sequence of the WSA maps
to simulate evolving background solar wind. This new capability
enables continuous predictions, extension of the computational
domain up up to Jupiter orbit, and reduction of the computational
time by using restarts. Then we use the 3-D analytic models of
a magnetic spheromak, launch it into the background solar wind,
and simulate its evolution in the inner heliosphere.
We present results achieved with this updated modeling system
and compare its predictions with remote and in-situ observations.