Poster Abstracts

Name/Affiliation:  Vladimir Airapetian (NASA/GSFC)

Title:  Magnetic Interaction of a Super-CME with the Earth's Magnetosphere: Implications for the 770 AD Solar Energetic Particle Event

Abstract:
Usoskin et al. (2013) have recently analyzed AD775 event to demonstrate that it can likely be attributed to a strong solar SEP event. Such an event can be initiated by a solar coronal mass ejection event with kinetic energies ~ 100 times of the most powerful CME event ever observed on the Sun, the super-CME. Recent observations of superflares on solar-like slowly rotating stars suggest that such events may occur with the frequency of 1 event per 800-2000 yr. We have performed a 3D time-dependent global magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the magnetic interaction of such a CME cloud with the Earth's magnetosphere. We calculate the global structure of the perturbed magnetosphere and derive the latitude of the open-closed magnetic field boundary. We also estimate energy fluxes penetrating the Earth's ionosphere and discuss implications for the formation of auroral events and the consequences of energetic particle fluxes on biological systems.