STUDYING EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET WAVE TRANSIENTS WITH A DIGITAL LABORATORY: DIRECT COMPARISON OF EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET WAVE OBSERVATIONS TO GLOBAL MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC SIMULATIONS
Abstract
In this work, we describe our effort to explore the signatures of large-scale extreme ultraviolet (EUV) transients in the solar corona (EUV waves) using a three-dimensional thermodynamic magnetohydrodynamic model. We conduct multiple simulations of the 2008 March 25 EUV wave (∼18:40 UT), observed both on and off of the solar disk by the STEREO-A and B spacecraft. By independently varying fundamental parameters thought to govern the physical mechanisms behind EUV waves in each model, such as the ambient magneto-sonic speed, eruption free energy, and eruption handedness, we are able to assess their respective contributions to the transient signature. A key feature of this work is the ability to synthesize the multi-filter response of the STEREO Extreme UltraViolet Imagers directly from model data, which gives a means for direct interpretation of EUV observations with full knowledge of the three-dimensional magnetic and thermodynamic structures in the simulations. We discuss the implications of our results with respect to some commonly held interpretations of EUV waves (e.g., fast-mode magnetosonic wave, plasma compression, reconnection front, etc.) and present a unified scenario which includes both a wave-like component moving at the fast magnetosonic speed and a coherent driven compression front related to the eruptive event itself.
Publication Date
1-13-2011
Journal Title
The Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
IOP
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Cooper Downs, Ilia I. Roussev, Bart van der Holst, Noé Lugaz, Igor V. Sokolov, and Tamas I. Gombosi. STUDYING EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET WAVE TRANSIENTS WITH A DIGITAL LABORATORY: DIRECT COMPARISON OF EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET WAVE OBSERVATIONS TO GLOBAL MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC SIMULATIONS. Astrophysical Journal. 728:2-2. 2011