Authors: Christopher Rowell (Florida Institute of Technology), Ming Zhang (Florida Institute of Technology)

The solar wind is a continuous stream of hot plasma emanating from the Sun, whose parameters are constantly monitored by spacecraft orbiting Earth. Knowledge of the connection between a given stream and the location of its solar origin is desirable as it will enhance the ability of scientists to predict and prepare for dramatic events, such as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). This work utilizes time series data collected at 1 AU to simulate one-dimensional backpropagation of the solar wind to just outside the Alfven surface. The resulting near-Sun boundary conditions generated by this time-reverse simulation are mapped to a two-dimensional boundary encircling the Sun. These boundary conditions are then used as input to a time-forward 2D MHD simulation, whose results can be analyzed to determine the magnetic connectivity between the Earth and the Sun, as well as isolate the origins of a particular stream. This project relies on exploiting the minimally diffusive nature of the solar wind and requires high-order numerical methods to evade time-irreversibility caused by numerical diffusion.