Research Article

Using sunRunner3D to interpret the global structure of the heliosphere from in situ measurements

¹ Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores (ENES), Unidad Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro No. 8701, Col. Ex Hacienda San José de la Huerta, 58190 Morelia, Michoaćan, México
² Predictive Science Inc., 9990 Mesa Rim Rd #170, San Diego, CA 92121, USA
³ Department of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Khandwa Rd., Simrol, Madhya Pradesh 453552, India

^* Corresponding author: jgonzaleza@enesmorelia.unam.mx

Received: 22 September 2023
Accepted: 14 April 2024

Abstract

Understanding the large-scale three-dimensional structure of the inner heliosphere, while important in its own right, is crucial for space weather applications, such as forecasting the time of arrival and propagation of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). This study uses sunRunner3D (3D), a 3-D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model, to simulate solar wind (SW) streams and generate background states. SR3D employs the boundary conditions generated by corona-heliosphere (CORHEL) and the PLUTO code to compute the plasma properties of the SW with the MHD approximation up to 1.1 AU in the inner heliosphere. We demonstrate that SR3D reproduces global features of corotating interaction regions (CIRs) observed by Earth-based spacecraft (OMNI) and the Solar Terrestial Relations Observatory (STEREO)-A for a set of Carrington rotations (CRs) that cover a period that lays in the late declining phase of solar cycle 24. Additionally, we demonstrate that the model solutions are valid in the corotating and inertial frames of references. Moreover, a comparison between SR3D simulations and in situ measurements shows reasonable agreement with the observations, and our results are comparable to those achieved by Predictive Science Inc.’s Magnetohydrodynamic Algorithm outside a Sphere (MAS) code. We have also undertaken a comparative analysis with the Space Weather Adaptive Simulation Framework for Solar Wind (SWASTi-SW), a PLUTO physics-based model, to evaluate the precision of various initial boundary conditions. Finally, we discuss the disparities in the solutions derived from inertial and rotating frames.