HR: 08:15h
AN: SM51C-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Propagation of solar wind and IMF disturbances from L1 to Earth's bowshock: Data analysis and MHD modeling
AU: * Papitashvili, V O
EM: papita@umich.edu
AF: AOSS, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2143, United States
AU: Kabin, K
EM: kabin@phys.ualberta.ca
AF: Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alb T6G 2J1, Canada
AU: Papitashvili, N E
EM: natasha@mail630.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: Space Physics Data Facility and Perot Systems, Inc., NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: King, J H
EM: jking@mail630.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: Space Physics Data Facility and Perot Systems, Inc., NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AB: In recent years, significant progress has been achieved in understanding solar wind propagation from the Sun to the Earth's orbit and its interaction with the terrestrial magnetosphere by using global massively parallel MHD models with adaptive grids. However, most global magnetospheric models require knowledge of the solar wind parameters (speed, density, and IMF) at about 35 Re upstream from the Earth where the inflow boundary conditions are imposed. In reality, the solar wind conditions are typically measured measured in the vicinity of the L1 point approximately 200 Re upstream. To date, only limited attention has yet been given to the actual propagation of the varying solar wind from L1 to the Earth's bow shock. If the plasma flow were homogeneous and steady, then this 200-Re distance would be covered by solar wind in about an hour, and the flow parameters measured near the bow shock would be the same as at L1. There are numerous techniques developed for describing the transport of solar wind plasma through this domain - from simple ballistic propagation to the methods involving minimum-variance analyses. None of these methods, however, provides a clear understanding what might happen with the solar wind in this domain when slower and faster flows are interspersed, and various SW and IMF discontinuities interact while moving through the slower ambient plasma. In this study, we present some results of the MHD modeling of steady and varying (slowing/accelerating) solar wind flow from L1 to the Earth's bowshock and compare these results with real events of the ACE-Wind data comparisons for intervals of minimal spacecraft transverse separations.
DE: 2134 Interplanetary magnetic fields
DE: 2164 Solar wind plasma
DE: 2199 General or miscellaneous
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly