02/16/2022
By Kalpa Henadhira Arachchige

The Kennedy College of Sciences, Department of Physics, invites you to attend a master’s thesis defense by Kalpa Henadhira Arachchige on “Comparing the Performance of a Solar Wind Model from the Sun to 1 AU Using Real and Synthetic Magnetograms."

Candidate Name: Kalpa Henadhira Arachchige
Degree: Master’s
Defense Date: March 4, 2022
Time: 1–3 p.m.
Location: Via Zoom
Thesis/Dissertation Title: Comparing the Performance of a Solar Wind Model from the Sun to 1 AU Using Real and Synthetic Magnetograms"

Advisor: Prof. Ofer Cohen, Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology, Department of Physics and Applied Physics,
University of Massachusetts Lowell

Committee Members:

  • Prof. Paul Song, Department of Physics and Applied Physics, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Prof. Marian Jandel, Department of Physics and Applied Physics, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Abstract:

The input of the Solar wind models plays a significant role in accurate solar wind predictions at 1 AU. This work introduces a synthetic magnetogram produced from a dynamo model as an input for Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations. We perform a quantitative study that compares the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) results for the observed and the synthetic solar magnetogram input. For each case, we compare the results for Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) images and extract the simulation data along the earth trajectory to compare with in-situ observations. We initialize SWMF using the real and synthetic magnetogram for a set of Carrington Rotations (CR)s within the solar cycle 23 and 24. Our results help quantify the ability of dynamo models to be used as input to solar wind models and thus, provide predictions for the solar wind at 1 AU.


This work is supported by NASA LWS grant 80NSSC18K0930. Simulation results were obtained using the (open source) Space Weather Modeling Framework, developed by the Center for Space Environment Modeling at the University of Michigan with funding support from NASA ESS, NASA ESTO-CT, NSF KDI, and DoD MURI. The simulations were performed on the Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) cluster supercomputer.