Solar Wind with Field Lines and Energetic Particles (SOFIE) Model: Application to Historical Solar Energetic Particle Events

TL;DR

The paper presents the SOFIE model, a data-driven, self-consistent simulation tool for solar energetic particle events, integrating solar wind, CMEs, and particle acceleration, validated against observational data.

Contribution

This work introduces the SOFIE model, combining multiple modules for realistic simulation of solar energetic particles and validating it with real event data.

Findings

SOFIE accurately reproduces background solar wind properties.

The model successfully simulates CME evolution and associated particle fluxes.

Validation shows good agreement with observational data.

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate the applicability of the data-driven and self-consistent solar energetic particle model, Solar-wind with FIeld-lines and Energetic-particles (SOFIE), to simulate acceleration and transport processes of solar energetic particles. SOFIE model is built upon the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) developed at the University of Michigan. In SOFIE, the background solar wind plasma in the solar corona and interplanetary space is calculated by the Aflv\'en Wave Solar-atmosphere Model(-Realtime) (AWSoM-R) driven by the near-real-time hourly updated Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) solar magnetograms. In the background solar wind, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are launched by placing an imbalanced magnetic flux rope on top of the parent active region, using the Eruptive Event Generator using Gibson-Low model (EEGGL). The acceleration and transport processes are modeled by the Multiple-Field-Line Advection Model for Particle Acceleration (M-FLAMPA). In this work, nine solar energetic particle events (Solar Heliospheric and INterplanetary Environment (SHINE) challenge/campaign events) are modeled. The three modules in SOFIE are validated and evaluated by comparing with observations, including the steady-state background solar wind properties, the white-light image of the CME, and the flux of solar energetic protons, at energies of > 10 MeV.