Collaborative Research: Numerical Investigation of CME-CME Interaction and Associated Effects from the Low Corona to 1 AU

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This team of investigators will use three-dimensional magnetohyrodynamic simulations to study the impact of prior solar eruptions and plasma interaction processes on the ultimate properties of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) reaching Earth's orbit. The team will assess how earlier CMEs precondition the heliosphere and solar wind, as well as how prior CME interactions deflect, rotate, compress, and accelerate subsequent CMEs. The team will identify the causes of enhanced geo-effectiveness in complex CME events at Earth and the extent to which these causes can be forecasted from remote-sensing observations. The team will conduct self-consistent simulations of selected CME events using existing and improved models of CME evolution, the interplanetary magnetic field, and the solar wind, and they will then compare their model output to spacecraft observations. The investigators argue that these direct comparisons will result in better constraints on their numerical models, as well as in new tools to better understand these complex measurements.The team is a collaborative effort among the University of Hawaii (the lead institution), the University of New Hampshire, and the Naval Research Laboratory. The team members will broadly disseminate their research results to the space weather community by organizing and participating in workshops and conferences, as well as through their journal publications and the enhancement of existing community models at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The invesitgators at the University of Hawaii and the University of New Hampshire will integrate local undergraduates in this research. The investigators pledge to recruit under-represented minorities into this effort wherever possible. The lead investigator also plans to take advantage of the Hawaii Center for Advancing Systemic Heliophysics Education for engaging in public outreach, while exploiting the colorful graphics and movies derived from these research simulations.