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Charge State Calculation for Global Solar Wind Modeling
  • Judit Szente,
  • Enrico Landi,
  • Bart van der Holst
Judit Szente
University of Michigan

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Enrico Landi
University of Michigan
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Bart van der Holst
University of Michigan
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Abstract

The charge state composition of the solar wind carries information about the electron temperature, density, and velocity of plasma in the solar corona that cannot always be measured with remote sensing techniques, due to limitations in instrumental sensitivity and field of view as well as line of sight integration issues. However, in-situ measurements of the wind charge state distribution only provides the end result of the solar wind evolution from the source region to the freeze-in point. By using 3D global modeling it is possible to follow solar wind plasma parcels of different origin along the path of their journey and study the evolution of their charge states as well as the driving physical processes. For this purpose, we implemented non-equilibrium ionization calculations within the Space Weather Modeling Framework’s Solar Corona and Inner Heliosphere modules, to the Alfvén Wave Solar Model (SWMF/AWSoM). The charge state calculations are carried out parallel to the AWSoM calculations, including all the elements and ions whose ionization-recombination rates are included in the CHIANTI database, namely from H to Zn. In this work, we describe the implementation of the charge state calculation, and compare simulation results to in-situ measurements from the ACE and Ulysses spacecraft, and study charge state evolution of plasma parcels along different wind trajectories and wind types.
01 Feb 2022Published in The Astrophysical Journal volume 926 issue 1 on pages 35. 10.3847/1538-4357/ac3918