Implementing the MULTI-VP Coronal Model in EUHFORIA: Results and Comparisons with the WSA Coronal Model

Abstract:

The EUropean Heliospheric FORecasting Information Asset (EUHFORIA) is a new 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) space weather prediction tool (Pomoell and Poedts, 2018). EUHFORIA models solar wind and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) all the way from the Sun to 2 AU. It consists of two different spatial domains; the coronal part, which extends from the solar surface to 0.1 AU and the heliospheric part, which covers the spatial domain from 0.1 AU onwards. For the first part, the empirical Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA; Arge et al., 2004) model is currently used, in combination with the potential field source surface (PFSS) model (Altschuler and Newkirk, 1969) and the Schatten current sheet (SCS) model (Schatten et al., 1969), in order to reconstruct the magnetic field up to 0.1 AU and produce the plasma boundary conditions required by the 3D MHD heliospheric part to initiate. In the current work, we replace the default coronal set-up of EUHFORIA with the physics-based MULTI-VP model (Pinto and Rouillard, 2017) and we compare the different output, both at 0.1 AU and 1 AU, for high-speed stream cases during solar minimum and maximum activity. Further comparisons for the events of interest are made by employing different magnetograms.