Unraveling Solar Wind Variations in the Last Solar Cycle Using Global Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Simulations

Understanding solar wind variations is one of the most important topics in heliophysics. The solar wind is a driver of space weather, which impacts space-based technology. This project will investigate whether Alfven wave turbulence-based models can consistently explain the coronal heating and solar wind acceleration throughout the solar cycle. The Global 3-D numerical model Alfven Wave Solar atmosphere Model (AWSoM) will be used and further developed by incorporating additional physics. The work also supports an early career woman scientist, graduate student, and undergraduate students. This project uses the state-of-the-art physics-based magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) model, AWSoM within the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) to investigate if the physics within AWSoM is sufficient to explain solar wind variations observed in the last solar cycle. The science objective will be achieved by comparing the simulated solar wind with various in-situ solar wind observations in the last solar cycle. The team will investigate whether the simulated Alfven wave energy densities agree with the observations during different phases of the solar cycle. The Poynting flux and transverse correlation length parameters will be varied and the AWSoM simulated data generated from these runs will be compared to in-situ data at various locations in the heliosphere, as measured by NASA missions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.