Toroidal modified Miller-Turner CME model in EUHFORIA: Validation and comparison with flux rope and spheromak

¹ Centre for mathematical Plasma-Astrophysics, Department of Mathematics, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200B, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
² Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence – SIDC, Royal Observatory of Belgium, 1180 Brussels, Belgium
³ Institute of Physics, University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska, ul. Radziszewskiego 10, 20-031 Lublin, Poland

^⋆ Corresponding author; anwesha.maharana@kuleuven.be

Received: 21 April 2024
Accepted: 3 August 2024

Abstract

Context. Rising concerns about the impact of space-weather-related disruptions demand modelling and reliable forecasting of coronal mass ejection (CME) impacts.

Aims. In this study, we demonstrate the application of the modified Miller-Turner (mMT) model implemented within EUropean Heliospheric FORecasting Information Asset (EUHFORIA) in forecasting the geo-effectiveness of observed coronal mass ejection (CME) events in the heliosphere. Our goal is to develop a model that not only has a global geometry, in order to improve overall forecasting, but is also fast enough for operational space-weather forecasting.

Methods. We test the original full torus implementation and introduce a new three-fourths Torus version called the Horseshoe CME model. This new model has a more realistic CME geometry, and overcomes the inaccuracies of the full torus geometry. We constrain the torus geometrical and magnetic field parameters using observed signatures of the CMEs before, during, and after the eruption. We perform EUHFORIA simulations for two validation cases – the isolated CME event of 12 July 2012 and the CME–CME interaction event of 8–10 September 2014. We performed an assessment of the model’s capability to predict the most important B_z component using the advanced dynamic time-warping (DTW) technique.

Results. The Horseshoe model predictions of CME arrival time and geo-effectiveness for both validation events compare well with the observations and are weighed against the results obtained with the spheromak and FRi3D models, which were already available in EUHFORIA.

Conclusions. The runtime of the Horseshoe model simulations is close to that of the spheromak model, which is suitable for operational space weather forecasting. However, the capability of the magnetic field prediction at 1 AU of the Horseshoe model is close to that of the FRi3D model. In addition, we demonstrate that the Horseshoe CME model can be used for simulating successive CMEs in EUHFORIA, overcoming a limitation of the FRi3D model.