MHD simulation of the evolution of shock structures in the solar corona: implications for coronal shock acceleration J. Pomoell1, R. Vainio1, and R. Kissmann2 1Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Finland 2Institute for Astro and Particle Physics, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Received: 12 Nov 2010 – Revised: 14 Feb 2011 – Accepted: 10 Mar 2011 – Published: 12 Sep 2011
Abstract. We have employed magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to study the
dynamics of shocks in a solar minimum-like corona caused by an
erupting coronal mass ejection (CME). Our simulations show that a
highly non-trivial evolution of the shock properties on coronal field
lines occurs even for simple coronal conditions. By
comparing with recent test particle simulations of an evolving
coronal shock employing a simplified shock model, we qualitatively
assess the possibility of the shocks given by the MHD simulations to
produce energetic particles. Our conclusion is that the evolution
of parameters most crucial to particle acceleration at shocks, such
as the compression ratio and obliquity, need to be more accurately
taken into account in models and simulations of particle
acceleration than has been customary, so far.
Citation: Pomoell, J., Vainio, R., and Kissmann, R.: MHD simulation of the evolution of shock structures in the solar corona: implications for coronal shock acceleration, Astrophys. Space Sci. Trans., 7, 387-394, doi:10.5194/astra-7-387-2011, 2011.