Impact of an L5 magnetograph on nonpotential solar global magnetic field modeling
View/ Open
Date
12/07/2016Funder
Grant ID
RPG-305
PO: 4070103637
ST/K000950/1
N/A
ST/N000609/1
Keywords
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We present the first theoretical study to consider what improvement could be obtained in global nonpotential modeling of the solar corona if magnetograph data were available from the L5 Lagrange point, in addition to from the direction of Earth. To consider this, we first carry out a "reference Sun" simulation over two solar cycles. An important property of this simulation is that random bipole emergences are allowed across the entire solar surface at any given time (such as can occur on the Sun). Next we construct two "limited data" simulations, where bipoles are only included when they could be seen from (i) an Earth-based magnetograph and (ii) either Earth- or L5 based magnetographs. The improvement in reproducing the reference Sun simulation when an L5 view is available is quantified through considering global quantities in the limited data simulations. These include surface and polar flux, total magnetic energy, volume electric current, open flux and the number of flux ropes. Results show that when an L5 observational viewpoint is included, the accuracy of the global quantities in the limited data simulations can increase by 26-40%. This clearly shows that a magnetograph at the L5 point could significantly increase the accuracy of global nonpotential modeling and with this the accuracy of future space weather forecasts.
Citation
Mackay , D H , Yeates , A R & Bocquet , F-X 2016 , ' Impact of an L5 magnetograph on nonpotential solar global magnetic field modeling ' , Astrophysical Journal , vol. 825 , no. 2 , 131 , pp. 1-16 . https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/825/2/131
Publication
Astrophysical Journal
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0004-637XType
Journal article
Rights
© 2016, The American Astronomical Society. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/825/2/131
Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.