Modeling the propagation of coronal mass ejections with COCONUT: Implementation of the regularized Biot-Savart law flux rope model

¹ School of Astronomy and Space Science and Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, PR China
e-mail: chenpf@nju.edu.cn
² Centre for Mathematical Plasma Astrophysics, Department of Mathematics, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200B, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
e-mail: stefaan.poedts@kuleuven.be
³ Institute of Physics, University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska, ul. Radziszewskiego 10, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
⁴ LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, UPMC, Université Paris Diderot, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon, France
⁵ AIM/DAp – CEA Paris-Saclay, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris-Cité, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Received: 2 August 2023
Accepted: 20 November 2023

Abstract

Context. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are rapid eruptions of magnetized plasma that occur on the Sun. They are known to be the main drivers of adverse space weather. The accurate tracking of their evolution in the heliosphere in numerical models is of the utmost importance for space weather forecasting.

Aims. The main objective of this paper is to implement the regularized Biot-Savart law (RBSL) method in a new global corona model, called COCONUT. This approach has the capability to construct the magnetic flux rope with an axis of arbitrary shape.

Methods. We present the implementation process of the RBSL flux rope model in COCONUT, which is superposed onto a realistic solar wind reconstructed from the observed magnetogram around the minimum of solar activity. Based on this, we simulate the propagation of an S-shaped flux rope from the solar surface to a distance of 25 R_⊙.

Results. Our simulation successfully reproduces the birth process of a CME originating from a sigmoid in a self-consistent way. The model effectively captures various physical processes and retrieves the prominent features of the CMEs in observations. In addition, the simulation results indicate that the magnetic topology of the CME flux rope at around 20 R_⊙ deviates from a coherent structure and manifests as a mix of open and closed field lines with diverse footpoints.

Conclusions. This work demonstrates the potential of the RBSL flux rope model in reproducing CME events that are more consistent with observations. Moreover, our findings strongly suggest that magnetic reconnection during the CME propagation plays a critical role in destroying the coherent characteristics of a CME flux rope.