Coupling the photosphere and corona using a data-driven 3D MHD model

S.T. Wu and A. H. Wang

Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research
The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Alabama, 35899, USA

To understand the energy and momentum transport from Sun to near Earth environment,it must be initiated from the photospheric measurements then coupling with corona and propagating through the heliosphere.Most modeling work of the initiation and propagation of solar disturbances impose theoretical perturbations to mimic the observations at solar surface.Now, there are many valuable high resolution and reasonably high cadence observations on the source surface.To be relevant to space weather operations, modelers need to take these observations to drive the models.In this presentation, a photosphere and corona coupling study using a data-driven 3D MHD model is given.To incorporate the observations at lower bounday, a set of self-consistent,time dependent boundary conditions using method of projected characteristics is described.To illustrate this model,the results for the study of the evolution of active regions(i.e. NOAA / AR8100,10464,10720) and their consequences to produce solar eruptions will be discussed.