Magnetic Interaction of a Super-CME with the Earth's Magnetosphere: Scenario for Young Earth

Abstract

Solar eruptions, known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), are frequently observed on our Sun. Recent Kepler observations of superflares on G-type stars have implied that so called super-CMEs, possessing kinetic energies 10 times of the most powerful CME event ever observed on the Sun, could be produced with a frequency of 1 event per 800-2000 yr on solar-like slowly rotating stars. We have performed a 3D time-dependent global magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the magnetic interaction of such a CME cloud with the Earth's magnetosphere. We calculated the global structure of the perturbed magnetosphere and derive the latitude of the open-closed magnetic field boundary. We also estimated energy fluxes penetrating the Earth's ionosphere and discuss the consequences of energetic particle fluxes on biological systems on early Earth.

To be published in Proceedings of 18th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun Proceedings of Lowell Observatory (9-13 June 2014) Edited by G. van Belle & H. Harris