High-resolution global MHD simulation of interplanetary propagation of September 5, 2022 CME event

Authors: Andrew McCubbin (JHU APL), Carlos Braga (JHU APL), Evangelia Samara (NASA GSFC), Viacheslav Merkin (JHU APL)

With the rise in solar activity, the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) spacecraft has been observing numerous Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) events through remote sensing and some in-situ. During its 13th encounter, PSP observed a spectacular large and fast CME that occurred on September 5, 2022. We present MHD modeling of the interplanetary evolution of the September 5 CME event in unprecedented high-resolution resolving scales of ~7*10^4 km (or ~0.1 R_S). Such high-resolution global simulations enable the study of the evolution of a CME and its interaction with the background solar wind streams at mesoscales, which is not possible with the low resolution typically used in the community for this type of simulation. We use the GAMERA-Helio MHD model of the inner heliosphere with the emergence of the Gibson-Low CME model with an internal magnetic field. The solar wind background is driven by the WSA-ADAPT coronal solution at 21.5 R_S. The shape and parameters of the initial CME structure emerging into the GAMERA inner heliosphere at 21.5 R_S are informed by a reconstruction of a CME from PSP and STEREO white-light imaging observations. We show that in the high-resolution simulation the evolution of a CME, its shock and sheath, is highly dynamic with the development of numerous structures at mesoscales. These structures exhibit a large degree of variation within a small angular width. We compare synthetic white-light images with actual observations from WISPR/PSP and STEREO/COR2. Additionally, we present a comparison between time series of plasma and magnetic field extracted at the Solar Orbiter location with the in-situ measurements during the CME passage.