MHD simulation of Solar Eruption from Active Region 11429 Driven by Photospheric Velocity Field

TL;DR

This study presents a data-driven 3D MHD simulation of a solar eruption from active region NOAA 11429, successfully reproducing observed features and highlighting the role of photospheric flows and flux emergence in eruption mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a realistic, data-driven MHD simulation that captures the full evolution of a solar eruption, emphasizing the importance of vertical flux emergence in active region development.

Findings

Simulation reproduces observed magnetic structures and flare ribbons.

Eruption triggered by torus instability of flux rope.

Vertical photospheric flow is crucial for realistic eruption modeling.

Abstract

Data-driven simulation is becoming an important approach for realistically characterizing the configuration and evolution of solar active regions, revealing the onset mechanism of solar eruption events and hopefully achieving the goal of accurate space weather forecast, which is beyond the scope of any existing theoretical modelling. Here we performed a full 3D MHD simulation using the data-driven approach and followed the whole evolution process from quasi-static phase to eruption successfully for solar active region NOAA 11429. The MHD system was driven at the bottom boundary by photospheric velocity field, which is derived by the DAVE4VM method from the observed vector magnetograms. The simulation shows that a magnetic flux rope was generated by persistent photospheric flow before the flare onset and then triggered to erupt by torus instability. Our simulation demonstrates a high degree of consistency with observations in the pre-eruption magnetic structure, the time scale of quasi-static stage, the pattern of flare ribbons as well as the time evolution of magnetic energy injection and total unsigned magnetic flux. We further found that an eruption can also be initiated in the simulation as driven by only the horizontal components of photospheric flow, but a comparison of the different simulations indicates that the vertical flow at the bottom boundary is necessary in reproducing more realistically these observed features, emphasizing the importance of flux emergence during the development of this AR.