Simulation study on the propagation process of coronal mass ejection

Abstract

Coronal mass ejection (CME) is a kind of space weather phenomenon caused by the intense activity of the sun. Important issues of concern to the space weather community include understanding the propagation and evolution of a particular CME in the corona and interplanetary space, forecasting whether and when it will reach the earth orbit, and predicting the change of solar wind state in near-earth space. CME always carries a vast amount of energy. When it reaches space near the earth, it will cause a severe disturbance, and trigger catastrophic space weather events, such as the geomagnetic storm. In order to utilize space resources and develop space science more deeply, avoid the damage of severe space weather caused by CME, it is important to improve the accuracy and efficiency of CME forecasting. Numerical simulation is one of the practical tools for the study and prediction of CME's propagation.This review introduces the different models used in the CME propagation simulations and their latest research progress. Firstly, we summarize the various CME propagation simulation models including background solar wind models, CME initialization models, and coronal magnetic field reconstruction models. The outline of the application and research progress of these models in the propagation simulation is also presented. Then, we review the simulation studies on the deflection of CME, including the deflection in the corona and its interaction with CIR. The relationship between CMEs and their simulation is then discussed. Finally, based on this research, we propose the problems that need to be solved in the CME propagation simulation research and give a few prospects.

Keywords

• the sun
• coronal mass ejection
• numerical simulation
• space weather