arXiv subjects

Ward B. Manchester IV

Publications and source records attributed to Ward B. Manchester IV.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Effects of Energy Conservation in Simulating Solar Eruptions

Strict energy conservation is, perhaps, the most basic principle in all physics, but has proven to be difficult to satisfy in numerical simulations of solar eruptions. The Alfvén Wave Solar atmosphere Model (AWSoM) is used to perform a rigorous comparison of CME simulations whose only difference is the use of a conservative vs. non-conservative scheme for the energy equation. A simple, symmetric active region is assumed for the initial magnetic field. As expected, the different numerical schemes result in very different plasma thermal energy, but surprisingly, we also find a factor $>2$ difference in the final kinetic energy, with the energy substantially larger in the energy-conservative scheme. The increase in thermal energy is comparable to the increase in kinetic energy in the conservative simulation. Our analysis reveals that the flare reconnection and increase of kinetic energy terminate earlier with the non-conservative scheme. We conclude that the plasma thermodynamics plays a critical role in the flare reconnection, with the thermal pressure gradient in the current sheet slowing down the reconnection. Our results imply that using strict energy-conservative numerics is critical for space weather modeling of CMEs and for understanding the CME energy budget partitioning.

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arXiv2026

Simulating the Solar Corona with Multiple Solar Photospheric Magnetic Maps during the 8 April 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

The 8 April 2024 total solar eclipse (TSE) provides a unique opportunity to study the solar corona. This work presents our simulations of the solar corona at the time of the eclipse based on magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modeling performed with the Alfvén Wave Solar atmosphere Model (AWSoM) in the Space Weather Modeling Framework, developed at the University of Michigan. We performed multiple simulations based on photospheric magnetic maps from four sources, i.e., ADAPT-GONG, Lockheed Martin ESFAM-HMI, HipFT-HMI, and NSO-NRT-HMI maps. Our study focuses on how differences in the magnetic field maps affect the coronal magnetic field structure and coronal heating properties in the simulation. The synthesized observables show remarkable differences due to the distinct magnetic coronal topologies, which stem from the different local magnetic flux distributions. We analyze the properties of the open magnetic flux regions of the models. We also study the coronal heating rate in the models. The total volume integrated heating rate yields a difference of $20\%$ across the models. The results also show that the differential emission measure in the high-temperature regions is sensitive to the magnetic field maps. Our findings underscore the importance of comprehensive photospheric magnetic field data in improving future solar coronal models.

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arXiv2026

Radio Spectral Imaging and MHD Modeling of a CME-Driven Shock: Connecting Solar Type II Radio Bursts with Shock-Surface Magnetic Geometry

Solar type II radio bursts are widely regarded as signatures of shock waves propagating in the solar corona and are of particular importance for understanding shock-driven particle acceleration processes. Type II radio bursts often exhibit complex multi-lane and split-band features. The detailed spectral, temporal, and spatial structures carry key information about the shock properties and evolution. However, the physical origin of the multi-lane and split-band features remains unclear, largely due to a lack of spatially resolved data and understanding of the concurrent shock morphology and its magnetic-field context. In this work, we combine radio imaging spectroscopy of a multi-lane, split-band type II burst event with a three-dimensional global magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the associated coronal mass ejection-driven shock using the Alfvén Wave Solar atmosphere Model-Realtime. In this event, the burst intensity evolves from fundamental-emission dominated to harmonic-emission dominated. Meanwhile, the preferential emission source region moves from the Earth-facing side to the limb or far side, coinciding with quasi-perpendicular shock regions with enhanced Mach numbers. The observed spatial offset between the fundamental and harmonic sources is generally aligned with the projected shock-surface magnetic field from the simulation, consistent with anisotropic scattering in a magnetized turbulent plasma. These results establish a physical connection between type II radio sources and coronal shock magnetic geometry, providing new insight into the origin of the multi-lane features and their diagnostics of coronal shocks.

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arXiv2025

Modeling Polarized Radio Sounding Observations of a Coronal Mass Ejection

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) evolve significantly as they propagate from the Sun to the Earth, so remote observations of their changes in speed, strength of the magnetic field, density, and overall structure are critical for predicting their arrival time and geoeffectiveness. Radio line-of-sight observations of Faraday rotation and Total Electron Content combined with white-light observations enables the measurement of these properties with careful analyses. This paper describes the analysis techniques and evaluates their accuracy with regard to measuring a CME's complex evolving structure and speed. The approach utilizes the layout of the Faraday effect tracker of coronal and heliospheric structures (FETCH), a purely space-based instrument concept, with Alfven Wave Solar atmosphere Model (AWSoM) simulations as input for evaluating these radio-based measures. Focusing on density and velocity/speed, we find that in-situ measurements of CME properties observe similar but different aspects of the distinct CME structure. The AWSoM model suggests that Faraday rotation may be a more sensitive measure of structure than Total Electron Content (TEC). Finally, we discuss the difficulty the simulation reveals in determining the trailing edge location of a magnetic flux rope.

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arXiv2025

Physics-Based Simulation of the 2013 April 11 Solar Energetic Particle Event

Solar energetic particles (SEPs) can pose hazardous radiation risks to both humans and spacecraft electronics in space. Numerical modeling based on first principles offers valuable insights into the underlying physics of SEPs and provides synthetic observables for SEPs at any time and location in the inner heliosphere. In this work, we present a numerical scheme, which conserves the number of particles based on integral relations for Poisson brackets \citep{sokolov2023high}, to solve the kinetic equation for particle acceleration and transport processes. We implement this scheme within the Space Weather Modeling Framework, developed at the University of Michigan. In addition, we develop a new shock-capturing tool to study the coronal mass ejection-driven shock originating from the low solar corona. These methodological advancements are applied to conduct a comprehensive study of a historical SEP event on April 11, 2013. Multi-spacecraft observations, including SOHO, SDO, GOES and ACE near Earth, and STEREO-A/B, are used for model--data comparison and validation. We show synthetic observables, including extreme ultraviolet and white-light images, proton time--intensity profiles, and energy spectra, and discuss their differences and probable explanations compared to observations. Our simulation results demonstrate the application of the Poisson bracket scheme with a particle solver to simulating a historical SEP event. We also show the capability of extracting the complex shock surface using our shock-capturing tool and understand how the complex shock surface affects the particle acceleration process.

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arXiv2021

Tracking the Source of Solar Type II Bursts through Comparisons of Simulations and Radio Data

The most intense solar energetic particle events are produced by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) accompanied by intense type II radio bursts below 15 MHz. Understanding where these type II bursts are generated relative to an erupting CME would reveal important details of particle acceleration near the Sun, but the emission cannot be imaged on Earth due to distortion from its ionosphere. Here, a technique is introduced to identify the likely source location of the emission by comparing the observed dynamic spectrum observed from a single spacecraft against synthetic spectra made from hypothesized emitting regions within a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical simulation of the recreated CME. The radio-loud 2005 May 13 CME was chosen as a test case, with Wind/WAVES radio data used to frame the inverse problem of finding the most likely progression of burst locations. An MHD recreation is used to create synthetic spectra for various hypothesized burst locations. A framework is developed to score these synthetic spectra by their similarity to the type II frequency profile derived from Wind/WAVES data. Simulated areas with 4x enhanced entropy and elevated de Hoffmann Teller velocities are found to produce synthetic spectra similar to spacecraft observations. A geometrical analysis suggests that the eastern edge of the entropy derived shock around (-30, 0) degrees in heliocentric coordinates was emitting in the first hour of the event before ceasing emission, and that the western/southwestern edge of the shock centered around (6, -12) degrees was a dominant area of radio emission for the 2 hours of simulation data out to 20 solar radii.

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arXiv2020

Tuning the Exo-Space Weather Radio for Stellar Coronal Mass Ejections

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on stars other than the Sun have proven very difficult to detect. One promising pathway lies in the detection of type II radio bursts. Their appearance and distinctive properties are associated with the development of an outward propagating CME-driven shock. However, dedicated radio searches have not been able to identify these transient features in other stars. Large Alfvén speeds and the magnetic suppression of CMEs in active stars have been proposed to render stellar eruptions "radio-quiet". Employing 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we study here the distribution of the coronal Alfvén speed, focusing on two cases representative of a young Sun-like star and a mid-activity M-dwarf (Proxima Centauri). These results are compared with a standard solar simulation and used to characterize the shock-prone regions in the stellar corona and wind. Furthermore, using a flux-rope eruption model, we drive realistic CME events within our M-dwarf simulation. We consider eruptions with different energies to probe the regimes of weak and partial CME magnetic confinement. While these CMEs are able to generate shocks in the corona, those are pushed much farther out compared to their solar counterparts. This drastically reduces the resulting type II radio burst frequencies down to the ionospheric cutoff, which impedes their detection with ground-based instrumentation.

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arXiv2019

Astro2020 Science White Paper: Synoptic Studies of the Sun as a Key to Understanding Stellar Astrospheres

Ground-based solar observations provide key contextual data (i.e., the 'big picture') to produce a complete description of the only astrosphere we can study in situ: our Sun's heliosphere. The next decade will see the beginning of operations of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST). DKIST will join NASA's Parker Solar Probe and the NASA/ESA Solar Orbital mission, which together will study our Sun's atmosphere with unprecedented detail. This white paper outlines the current paradigm for ground-based solar synoptic observations, and indicates those areas that will benefit from focused attention.

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arXiv2014

A Steady-State Picture of Solar Wind Acceleration and Charge State Composition Derived from a Global Wave-Driven MHD Model

The higher charge states found in slow ($<$400km s$^{-1}$) solar wind streams compared to fast streams have supported the hypothesis that the slow wind originates in closed coronal loops, and released intermittently through reconnection. Here we examine whether a highly ionized slow wind can also form along steady and open magnetic field lines. We model the steady-state solar atmosphere using AWSoM, a global magnetohydrodynamic model driven by Alfv{é}n waves, and apply an ionization code to calculate the charge state evolution along modeled open field lines. This constitutes the first charge states calculation covering all latitudes in a realistic magnetic field. The ratios $O^{+7}/O^{+6}$ and $C^{+6}/C^{+5}$ are compared to in-situ Ulysses observations, and are found to be higher in the slow wind, as observed; however, they are under-predicted in both wind types. The modeled ion fractions of S, Si, and Fe are used to calculate line-of-sight intensities, which are compared to EIS observations above a coronal hole. The agreement is partial, and suggests that all ionization rates are under-predicted. Assuming the presence of suprathermal electrons improved the agreement with both EIS and Ulysses observations; importantly, the trend of higher ionization in the slow wind was maintained. The results suggest there can be a sub-class of slow wind that is steady and highly ionized. Further analysis shows it originates from coronal hole boundaries (CHB), where the modeled electron density and temperature are higher than inside the hole, leading to faster ionization. This property of CHBs is global, and observationally supported by EUV tomography.

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arXiv2013

Alfven Wave Solar Model (AWSoM): Coronal Heating

We present a new version of the Alfven Wave Solar Model (AWSoM), a global model from the upper chromosphere to the corona and the heliosphere. The coronal heating and solar wind acceleration are addressed with low-frequency Alfven wave turbulence. The injection of Alfven wave energy at the inner boundary is such that the Poynting flux is proportional to the magnetic field strength. The three-dimensional magnetic field topology is simulated using data from photospheric magnetic field measurements. This model does not impose open-closed magnetic field boundaries; those develop self-consistently. The physics includes: (1) The model employs three different temperatures, namely the isotropic electron temperature and the parallel and perpendicular ion temperatures. The firehose, mirror, and ion-cyclotron instabilities due to the developing ion temperature anisotropy are accounted for. (2) The Alfven waves are partially reflected by the Alfven speed gradient and the vorticity along the field lines. The resulting counter-propagating waves are responsible for the nonlinear turbulent cascade. The balanced turbulence due to uncorrelated waves near the apex of the closed field lines and the resulting elevated temperatures are addressed. (3) To apportion the wave dissipation to the three temperatures, we employ the results of the theories of linear wave damping and nonlinear stochastic heating. (4) We have incorporated the collisional and collisionless electron heat conduction. We compare the simulated multi-wavelength EUV images of CR2107 with the observations from STEREO/EUVI and SDO/AIA instruments. We demonstrate that the reflection due to strong magnetic fields in proximity of active regions intensifies the dissipation and observable emission sufficiently.

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arXiv2012

MHD Waves and Coronal Heating: Unifying Empirical and MHD Turbulence Models

We present a new global model of the solar corona, including the low corona, the transition region and the top of chromosphere. The realistic 3D magnetic field is simulated using the data from the photospheric magnetic field measurements. The distinctive feature of the new model is incorporating the MHD Alfven wave turbulence. We assume this turbulence and its non-linear dissipation to be the only momentum and energy source for heating the coronal plasma and driving the solar wind. The difference between the turbulence dissipation efficiency in coronal holes and that in closed field regions is because the non-linear cascade rate degrades in strongly anisotropic turbulence in coronal holes (no inward propagating wave), thus resulting in colder coronal holes with the bi-modal solar wind originating from them. The detailed presentation of the theoretical model is illustrated with the synthetic images for multi-wavelength EUV emission compared with the observations from SDO AIA and Stereo EUVI instruments for the Carrington rotation 2107.

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arXiv2012

Newly Discovered Global Temperature Structures in the Quiet Sun at Solar Minimum

Magnetic loops are building blocks of the closed-field corona. While active region loops are readily seen in images taken at EUV and X-ray wavelengths, quiet Sun loops are seldom identifiable and therefore difficult to study on an individual basis. The first analysis of solar minimum (Carrington Rotation 2077) quiet Sun (QS) coronal loops utilizing a novel technique called the Michigan Loop Diagnostic Technique (MLDT) is presented. This technique combines Differential Emission Measure Tomography (DEMT) and a potential field source surface (PFSS) model, and consists of tracing PFSS field lines through the tomographic grid on which the Local Differential Emission Measure (LDEM) is determined. As a result, the electron temperature Te and density Ne at each point along each individual field line can be obtained. Using data from STEREO/EUVI and SOHO/MDI, the MLDT identifies two types of QS loops in the corona: so-called "up" loops in which the temperature increases with height, and so-called "down" loops in which the temperature decreases with height. Up loops are expected, however, down loops are a surprise, and furthermore, they are ubiquitous in the low-latitude corona. Up loops dominate the QS at higher latitudes. The MLDT allows independent determination of the empirical pressure and density scale heights, and the differences between the two remain to be explained. The down loops appear to be a newly discovered property of the solar minimum corona that may shed light on the physics of coronal heating. The results are shown to be robust to the calibration uncertainties of the EUVI instrument.

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arXiv2010

The WHI Corona from Differential Emission Measure Tomography

A three dimensional (3D) tomographic reconstruction of the local differential emission measure (LDEM) of the global solar corona during the whole heliosphere interval (WHI, Carrington rotation CR-2068) is presented, based on STEREO/EUVI images. We determine the 3D distribution of the electron density, mean temperature, and temperature spread, in the range of heliocentric heights 1.03 to 1.23 Rsun. The reconstruction is complemented with a potential field source surface (PFSS) magnetic-field model. The streamer core, streamer legs, and subpolar regions are analyzed and compared to a similar analysis previously performed for CR-2077, very near the absolute minimum of the Solar Cycle 23. In each region, the typical values of density and temperature are similar in both periods. The WHI corona exhibits a streamer structure of relatively smaller volume and latitudinal extension than during CR-2077, with a global closed-to-open density contrast about 6% lower, and a somewhat more complex morphology. The average basal electron density is found to be about 2.23 and 1.08 x 10^8 cm^-3, in the streamer core and subpolar regions, respectively. The electron temperature is quite uniform over the analyzed height range, with average values of about 1.13 and 0.93 MK, in the streamer core and subpolar regions, respectively. Within the streamer closed region, both periods show higher temperatures at mid-latitudes and lower temperatures near the equator. Both periods show beta>1 in the streamer core and beta<1 in the surrounding open regions, with CR-2077 exhibiting a stronger contrast. Hydrostatic fits to the electron density are performed, and the scale height is compared to the LDEM mean electron temperature. Within the streamer core, the results are consistent with an isothermal hydrostatic plasma regime, with the temperatures of ions and electrons differing by up to about 10% .. (continues)..

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arXiv2009

Numerical Simulation of an EUV Coronal Wave Based on the February 13, 2009 CME Event Observed by STEREO

On 13 February 2009, a coronal wave -- CME -- dimming event was observed in quadrature by the STEREO spacecraft. We analyze this event using a three-dimensional, global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model for the solar corona. The numerical simulation is driven and constrained by the observations, and indicates where magnetic reconnection occurs between the expanding CME core and surrounding environment. We focus primarily on the lower corona, extending out to $3R_{\odot}$; this range allows simultaneous comparison with both EUVI and COR1 data. Our simulation produces a diffuse coronal bright front remarkably similar to that observed by STEREO/EUVI at 195 Å. It is made up of \emph{two} components, and is the result of a combination of both wave and non-wave mechanisms. The CME becomes large-scale quite low ($<$ 200 Mm) in the corona. It is not, however, an inherently large-scale event; rather, the expansion is facilitated by magnetic reconnection between the expanding CME core and the surrounding magnetic environment. In support of this, we also find numerous secondary dimmings, many far from the initial CME source region. Relating such dimmings to reconnecting field lines within the simulation provides further evidence that CME expansion leads to the "opening" of coronal field lines on a global scale. Throughout the CME expansion, the coronal wave maps directly to the CME footprint. Our results suggest that the ongoing debate over the "true" nature of diffuse coronal waves may be mischaracterized. It appears that \emph{both} wave and non-wave models are required to explain the observations and understand the complex nature of these events.

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arXiv2008

Shear Flows Driven by the Lorentz Force: An Energy Source for Coronal Mass Ejections and Flares

Shear flows have been prescribed in numerical models of coronal mass ejections and flares for decades as a way of energizing magnetic fields to erupt. While such shear flows have long been observed in the solar atmosphere, until recently, there was no compelling physical explanation for them. This paper will discuss the discovery that such shear flows are readily explained as a response to the Lorentz force that naturally occurs as bipolar magnetic fields emerge and expand in a gravitationally stratified atmosphere. It will be shown that shearing motions transport axial flux, and magnetic energy from the submerged portion of the field to the expanding portion, strongly coupling the solar interior to the corona. This physical process explains active region shear flows and why the magnetic field is found to be nearly parallel to photospheric polarity inversion lines where prominences form. Finally, shear flows driven by the Lorentz force are shown to produce a loss of equilibrium and eruption in magnetic arcades and flux ropes offering a convincing explanation for CMEs and flares.

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