HR: 1330h
AN: SH43A-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Identifying Interplanetary Shock Parameters in Heliospheric MHD Simulation Results
AU: * Ledvina, S A
EM: ledvina@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Lab, UC Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450 United States
AU: Luhmann, J G
EM: jgluhman@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Lab, UC Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450 United States
AU: Brecht, S H
EM: sbrecht@pacbell.net
AF: Bay Area Research Corp, 93 Moraga Way # 200, Orinda, CA 94563 United States
AU: Odstrcil, D
EM: odstrcil@sec.noaa.gov
AF: CIRES, University of Colorado Campus Box 216,, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AB: One of the challenges of integrating SEP models into heliospheric space weather event simulations is the identification and characterization of the shock in the underlying MHD simulation results. We investigate the numerical method by which the jumps can be identified, the shock surface orientation characterized, and the upstream and downstream conditions defined. Our approach uses snapshots of observer-connected interplanetary magnetic field lines. First we determine whether a shock is on the connected field line, and record its position and the change in the MHD variables (field, density, velocity). We also examine several adjacent field lines and similarly determine the shock positions. The identification of the jumps takes into account the lack of spatial resolution at the shock front. The shock surface orientation is determined by a cross-product method. Then the shock normal angle is determined from the upstream and downstream vector fields and the normal. These calculations are relatively fast and can be embedded in a simulation run for use in overlaid SEP shock source descriptions or for analyzing the evolution of the connected shock parameters with time.
DE: 2114 Energetic particles, heliospheric (7514)
DE: 2118 Energetic particles, solar
DE: 7811 Discontinuities
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly