Application of a Modified Spheromak Model to Simulations of Coronal Mass Ejection in the Inner Heliosphere

Abstract

The magnetic fields of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), which originate close to the Sun in the form of a flux rope, determine their geoeffectiveness. Therefore, robust flux rope-based models of CMEs are required to perform magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations aimed at space weather predictions. We propose a modified spheromak model and demonstrate its applicability to CME simulations. In this model, such properties of a simulated CME as the poloidal and toroidal magnetic fluxes, and the helicity sign can be controlled with a set of input parameters. We propose a robust technique for introducing CMEs with an appropriate speed into a background, MHD solution describing the solar wind in the inner heliosphere. Through a parametric study, we find that the speed of a CME is much more dependent on its poloidal flux than on the toroidal flux. We also show that the CME speed increases with its total energy, giving us control over its initial speed. We further demonstrate the applicability of this model to simulations of CME-CME collisions. Finally, we use this model to simulate the 12 July 2012 CME and compare the plasma properties at 1 AU with observations. The predicted CME properties agree reasonably with observational data.

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Multi point analysis of coronal mass ejection flux ropes using combined data from Solar Orbiter, BepiColombo and Wind
• Exploring the radial evolution of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections using EUHFORIA
• Ensemble simulations of the 12 July 2012 Coronal Mass Ejection with the Constant Turn Flux Rope Model
• The spheromak tilting and how it affects modelling coronal mass ejections
• Improving the Arrival Time Estimates of Coronal Mass Ejections by Using Magnetohydrodynamic Ensemble Modeling, Heliospheric Imager data, and Machine Learning
• Ensemble Modeling of the Solar Wind Flow with Boundary Conditions Governed by Synchronic Photospheric Magnetograms. I. Multi-point Validation in the Inner Heliosphere