Multiscale Sun-to-Earth MHD Simulation of a Coronal Mass Ejection

Multiscale MHD simulation of a coronal mass ejection and its interaction with the magnetosphere-ionosphere system

Tamas I. Gombosi Darren L. De Zeeuw C.P.T. Groth Kenneth G. Powell Quentin F. Stout
Center for Space Environment Modeling, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Abstract: We report on the first comprehensive numerical simulation of a space weather event, starting with th generation of a coronal mass ejection (CME). The simulation follows this transient solar wind disturbance as it evolves into a magnetic cloud and travels through interplanetary space towards Earth, where we predict its interaction with the terrestrial magnetosphere-ionosphere system. The model is based on a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) approach, utilizing adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) on a parallel computer to reduce the computational time.

Keywords: space environment modeling, space weather, high performance computing, parallel computing, solution adaptive mesh refinement

Complete paper. This paper appears in J. Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 62 (2000), pp. 1515-1525.

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