Numerical Simulation of the 12 May 1997 CME Event

Abstract

Our newly developed CESE MHD model is used to simulate sun-earth connection event with the well-studied 12 May 1997 CME event as an example. The main features and approximations of our numerical model are as follows: (1) The modified conservation element and solution element (CESE) numerical scheme in spherical geometry is implemented in our code. (2) The background solar wind is derived from a 3D time-dependent numerical MHD model by input measured photospheric magnetic fields. (3) Transient disturbances are derived from solar surface by introducing a mass flow of hot plasma. The numerical simulation has enabled us to predict the arrival of the interplanetary shock and provided us with a relatively satisfactory comparison with the WIND spacecraft observations.