Development of the global simulation model of the heliosphere

Abstract

The heliospheric structure ranging from the solar surface to the earth's orbit is self-consistently reproduced from a time-stationary three-dimensional (3D) magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation. The simulation model incorporates gravity, Coriolis, and centrifugal forces into the momentum equation, and coronal heating and fieldaligned thermal conduction into the energy equation. The heating term in the present model has its peak at 2.8 solar radius (R s ) and exponentially falls to zero at greater distance from the solar surface. The absolute value of heating depends on the topology of the solar magnetic field so as to be in inverse proportion with the magnetic expansion factor. The results of the simulation simultaneously reproduce the plasma-exit structure on the solar surface, the high-temperature region in the corona, the open-and closed-magnetic-field structures in the corona, the fast and slow streams of the solar wind, and the sector structure in the heliosphere.