MHD Simulation of the 2008 December 12 CME: Comparison with STEREO Observations.

MANCHESTER IV, WARD B.; VAN DER HOLST, BART; FRAZIN, RICHARD A.; GOMBOSI, TAMAS; VOURLIDAS, ANGELOS; LIU, YING; VÁSQUEZ, ALBERTO M.

Bremen, Alemania

Conferencia; 38th COSPAR Scientific Assembly 2010; 2010

COSPAR Scientific Assembly

We model the 2008 December 12 coronal mass ejection (CME) from its active region origin and follow its propagation to 1AU. This CME is ideal for study for it erupted from near disk center producing a magnetic cloud that passed the Earth 5 days later as observed by Wind. The resulting ICME passed between the STEREO spacecraft and was well observed by COR1 and COR2 coronagraphs as well as the HI1 and HI2 imagers. We compare our numerical model to these extensive observations to understand and verify the three-dimensional (3-D) structure of the ejected plasma. We employ a new advanced two-temperature model of the solar wind, which combines improved thermodynamics along with the treatment of Afven waves. The model address both eld-aligned electron and ion heat conduction with collisional coupling between the two species. Alfven waves heat the ions, which then transfer their energy to electrons, which transport the energy far into the corona. We use numerous observations to specify boundary conditions for the numerical model, including MDI synoptic magnetograms and 3-D tomographic reconstructions of coronal temperature and density based on STEREO EUVI data.