Authors: J. T. Dahlin (U. Maryland), S. K. Antiochos (U. Michigan), B. Van der Holst (U. Michigan), G. Toth (U. Michigan), T. Gombosi (U. Michigan), W. Manchester (U. Michigan), C. R. DeVore (NASA GSFC)

Prediction of space weather is a grand challenge problem of critical importance for protecting human spaceborne assets and technology. The sources of the most intense space weather hazards are Coronal Mass Ejections, which originate from sheared magnetic structures in the corona known as filament channels. Modeling of filament channel formation and subsequent destabilization is critical in particular for prediction of Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) because the most efficient acceleration processes are thought to occur at shocks formed in the low corona. We have recently developed STITCH — STatistical InjecTion of Condensed Helicity — an efficient new method for forming filament channels and generating CMEs in magnetohydrodynamic models. We present first results on the implementation of this STITCH as an Eruptive Event Generation model within the AWSoM model, leveraging the extensive CME propagation and energetic particle acceleration and transport suite of the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF). STITCH is both flexible and simple in implementation, making it accessible to both expert and non-expert users. We plan to incorporate the STITCH capability into SWMF at the CCMC for use by the whole community to model solar eruptive events.

This work was supported by the SCEPTER (Solar Coronal Eruption Propagation to Earth with particle Radiation) Strategic Capability Team led by the University of Michigan.