Jin M., W. B. Manchester, B. van der Holst, R. Oran, I. Sokolov, G. Toth, Y. Liu, X. D. Sun, T. I. Gombosi, (2013), Numerical Simulations of Coronal Mass Ejection on 2011 March 7: One-temperature and Two-temperature Model Comparison, The Astrophysical Journal, 773, 50, doi:doi:10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/50

Abstract

During Carrington rotation (CR) 2107, a fast coronal mass ejection (CME; >2000 km s –1 ) occurred in active region NOAA 11164. This event is also associated with a solar energetic particle event. In this study, we present simulations of this CME with one-temperature (1T) and two-temperature (2T: coupled thermodynamics of the electron and proton populations) models. Both the 1T and 2T models start from the chromosphere with heat conduction and radiative cooling. The background solar wind is driven by Alfvén-wave pressure and heated by Alfvén-wave dissipation in which we have incorporated the balanced turbulence at the top of the closed field lines. The magnetic field of the inner boundary is set up using a synoptic map from Solar Dynamics Observatory /Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager. The Titov-Démoulin flux-rope model is used to initiate the CME event. We compare the propagation of fast CMEs and the thermodynamics of CME-driven shocks in both the 1T and 2T CME simulations. Also, the synthesized white light images are compared with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory /Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph observations. Because there is no distinction between electron and proton temperatures, heat conduction in the 1T model creates an unphysical temperature precursor in front of the CME-driven shock and makes the shock parameters (e.g., shock Mach number, compression ratio) incorrect. Our results demonstrate the importance of the electron heat conduction in conjunction with proton shock heating in order to produce the physically correct CME structures and CME-driven shocks.

Authors (sorted by name)

Gombosi Jin Liu Manchester Oran Sokolov Sun Toth van der Holst

Journal / Conference

The Astrophysical Journal

Acknowledgments

W. Manchester was supported by NASA grants LWS NNX09AJ78G and NNX11AN38G, and B. van der Holst was supported by NASA LWS NNX09AJ78G. We are thankful for the use of the NASA Supercomputer Pleiades at Ames and its helpful staff for making it possible to perform the simulations presented in this paper. H-alpha data supplied courtesy of SolarMonitor.org. Full-disk H-alpha images are supplied courtesy of the Global High Resolution H-alpha Network (GHN) team. SDO data supplied courtesy of the SDO/HMI. SDO is the first mission to be launched for NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) Program. LASCO was built by a consortium of the Naval Research Laboratory, USA, the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (formerly Laboratoire d'Astronomie Spatiale), France, the Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung (formerly Max Planck Institute für Aeronomie), Germany, and the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, UK. SOHO is a project of joint collaboration by ESA and NASA.

Grants

NNX09AJ78G NNX11AN38G

Bibtex

@article{0004-637X-773-1-50,
  author={M. Jin and W. B. Manchester and B. van der Holst and R. Oran and I. Sokolov and G. Toth and Y. Liu and X. D. Sun and T. I. Gombosi},
  title={Numerical Simulations of Coronal Mass Ejection on 2011 March 7: One-temperature and Two-temperature Model Comparison},
  journal={The Astrophysical Journal},
  volume={773},
  doi={ doi:10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/50},
  number={1},
  pages={50},
  url={http://stacks.iop.org/0004-637X/773/i=1/a=50},
  year={2013},
  abstract={During Carrington rotation (CR) 2107, a fast coronal mass ejection (CME; >2000 km s –1 ) occurred in active region NOAA 11164. This event is also associated with a solar energetic particle event. In this study, we present simulations of this CME with one-temperature (1T) and two-temperature (2T: coupled thermodynamics of the electron and proton populations) models. Both the 1T and 2T models start from the chromosphere with heat conduction and radiative cooling. The background solar wind is driven by Alfvén-wave pressure and heated by Alfvén-wave dissipation in which we have incorporated the balanced turbulence at the top of the closed field lines. The magnetic field of the inner boundary is set up using a synoptic map from Solar Dynamics Observatory /Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager. The Titov-Démoulin flux-rope model is used to initiate the CME event. We compare the propagation of fast CMEs and the thermodynamics of CME-driven shocks in both the 1T and 2T CME simulations. Also, the synthesized white light images are compared with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory /Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph observations. Because there is no distinction between electron and proton temperatures, heat conduction in the 1T model creates an unphysical temperature precursor in front of the CME-driven shock and makes the shock parameters (e.g., shock Mach number, compression ratio) incorrect. Our results demonstrate the importance of the electron heat conduction in conjunction with proton shock heating in order to produce the physically correct CME structures and CME-driven shocks.}
}