SPRG Seminars
April 9, 2013:
"The Coronal Global Evolutionary Model (CGEM)"
George H. Fisher, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley
The Coronal Global Evolutionary Model, or CGEM, is a collaborative effort from the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL), Stanford University, and Lockheed-Martin. In work that led up to the selection of this project, the team demonstrated its capability to use sequences of vector magnetograms and Dopplergrams from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument aboard the SDO to drive a magnetofrictional (MF) model of the coronal magnetic field in AR 11158, which produced an X2.2 flare. We will implement this MF model in spherical coordinates to enable real-time, long-term modeling of the non-potential coronal magnetic field, both globally and for individual active region (ARs). The model's Earth-facing hemisphere will be driven using electric fields derived from the observed evolution of photospheric line-of-sight magnetic fields and electric currents. Far-side data inputs will be from an existing flux transport code, combined with HMI far-side observations of new active regions, with empirical parametrizations of orientation and flux.
Because this model includes large-scale coronal electric currents, it is a substantial improvement over existing real-time global coronal models, which assume potential fields. Data products available from the model will include: 1) the evolving photospheric electric field, Poynting flux, and helicity flux; 2) estimates of coronal free energy and non-potential geometry and topology; 3) initial and time-dependent boundary conditions for MHD modeling of active regions; and 4) time-dependent boundary conditions and flux tube expansion factors for MHD and empirical solar wind models. Unstable configurations found from MF models will be dynamically evolved with local and global MHD codes. Modules used to derive surface electric fields from magnetic evolution will be incorporated into the SDO/HMI data pipeline, and data products will be distributed through the Joint Science Operations Center (JSOC) and directly to space weather forecasters and users. The electric field and MF codes will be delivered to the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) for science analysis and use with other models.
This project is being jointly funded by NASA and NSF.