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Living Reviews in Solar Physics: "Extended MHD modeling of the steady solar corona and the solar wind"

Journal cover: Living Reviews in Solar PhysicsTamas I. Gombosi, Bart van der Holst, Ward B. Manchester, Igor V. Sokolov, "Extended MHD modeling of the steady solar corona and the solar wind", Living Rev Sol Phys (2018) 15: 4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41116-018-0014-4​​​​​​​

Open Access | Review Article

First Online: 30 July 2018

"This review gives an interesting view and summary of solar wind modeling with particular emphasis on 3D MHD solar wind numerical simulations. It features a really great historic introduction of early solar wind studies, perhaps the best I have seen. It is very informative, entertaining, and easy to read, also quite thorough. It contains some strongly stated opinion, which I find refreshing these days, especially since that opinion is clearly presented as such."

Abstract:

The history and present state of large-scale magnetohydrodynamic modeling of the solar corona and the solar wind with steady or quasi-steady coronal physics is reviewed. We put the evolution of ideas leading to the recognition of the existence of an expanding solar atmosphere into historical context. The development and main features of the first generation of global corona and solar wind models are described in detail. This historical perspective is also applied to the present suite of global corona and solar wind models. We discuss the evolution of new ideas and their implementation into numerical simulation codes. We point out the scientific and computational challenges facing these models and discuss the ways various groups tried to overcome these challenges. Next, we discuss the latest, state-of-the art models and point to the expected next steps in modeling the corona and the interplanetary medium.

The authors:

Tamas I. Gombosi is Professor at the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering of The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a leading space plasma physicist with particular interest in numerical modeling of the space environment.

Bart van der Holst is an Associate Research Scientist at the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering of The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He works in solar physics, space weather modeling, and computational high energy density physics, and develops codes for space and laboratory plasmas.

Ward B Manchester IV is Research Professor at the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering of The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His research interests concern solar magnetism and magnetic flux transport from below the photosphere into the corona and through the heliosphere. In this context, he has contributed to basic theory and modeling efforts with analytical work and large scale numerical simulations.

Igor Sokolov is Research Scientist at the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering of The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is interested in the modeling of solar energetic particles and space environment, data assimilation, and geospace data analysis.