Solar wind modeling with the Alfven Wave Solar atmosphere Model driven by HMI-based Near-Real-Time maps by the National Solar Observatory

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the performance of the AWSoM model driven by near-real-time HMI-based magnetic field maps, demonstrating its ability to reproduce EUV emissions, in situ observations, and magnetic flux across different solar activity levels.

Contribution

It introduces the use of NSO-developed HMI-NRT maps to drive the AWSoM model and assesses its accuracy over multiple Carrington rotations during solar cycle 24.

Findings

Model successfully reproduces EUV emissions and in situ observations.

Accurately quantifies total unsigned open magnetic flux.

Demonstrates robustness across different solar activity levels.

Abstract

We explore model performance for the Alfven Wave Solar atmosphere Model (AWSoM) with near-real-time (NRT) synoptic maps of the photospheric vector magnetic field. These maps, produced by assimilating data from the Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), use a different method developed at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) to provide a near contemporaneous source of data to drive numerical models. Here, we apply these NSO-HMI-NRT maps to simulate three Carrington rotations (CRs): 2107-2108 (centered on 2011/03/07 20:12 CME event), 2123 (integer CR) and 2218--2219 (centered on 2019/07/2 solar eclipse), which together cover a wide range of activity level for solar cycle 24. We show simulation results, which reproduce both extreme ultraviolet emission (EUV) from the low corona while simultaneously matching in situ observations at 1 au as well as quantify the total unsigned open magnetic flux from these maps.