Authors: Kathy Reeves (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

A wide variety of modeling techniques have been used simulate solar eruptions as a means of relating the observational signatures of solar flares to the underlying physics. In this talk, I will focus on various kinds of magnetohydrodynamic models, discuss the observations that they have successfully explained, and propose areas where they fall short. For example, one-dimensional loop models have been successfully employed to probe the physics of chromospheric evaporation, and have been able to explain some spectroscopic signatures of flare ribbons. However, reproducing bulk observations of flares such as emission light curves is more challenging, and requires assumptions about the heating (and cooling) in the loops. Some eruption phenomena, such as dynamics or heating in the reconnection region, can only be captured by two dimensional or three dimensional models. I will discuss how the successes of 1D models can guide the way for improvements in 2D and 3D models.