scostep 2010 (stp12) - Leibniz-Institut für Atmosphärenphysik an der ...

STP12 Abstracts
Berlin, 12 - 16 July 2010
SCOSTEP Symposium 2010
Long-lived and Large-scale Structures Caused by Interacting iCMEs and Their
Influence on the Earth and Planetary Magnetospheres
Lugaz Noe 1 , Roussev Ilia 1 , Vourlidas Angelos 2 , Gombosi Tamas 3
1 Institute for Astronomy - Hawaii, 2 Naval Research Laboratory, 3 University of Michigan
The interaction of successive interplanetary coronal mass ejections (iCMEs) on their way to
Earth (and other planets) has been a leading cause of large-scale and long-lived structures
resulting in intense geo-magnetic storms during past solar cycles. Associated with the
interaction, the merging of shock waves, which creates denser sheaths and the compression of
the magnetic field in ejecta are expected to result in unusal responses of the magnetosphere.
Here, we present results of magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of geo-effective
events from the past solar maximum with the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF).
Our focus is on the propagation and interaction of successive iCMEs from the Sun to the
Earth and the understanding of the mechanisms which may result in larger and more geoeffective
structures. We will also present simulations showing how the Heliospheric Imagers
part of SECCHI onboard STEREO can help predicting complex ejecta during solar cycle 24,
in particular by determining the direction of iCMEs and even by directly imaging the collision
of iCMEs.