Impact of far-side structures observed by Solar Orbiter on coronal and heliospheric wind simulations (2404.06794v1)

Abstract: Solar Orbiter provides unique capabilities to understand the heliosphere. In particular, it has made observations of the far-side of the Sun and provides unique information to improve space weather monitoring. We aim to quantify how far-side data will affect simulations of the corona and the interplanetary medium, especially in the context of space weather forecasting. We focused on a time period with a single sunspot emerging on the far-side in February 2021. We used two different input magnetic maps: one with the far-side active region and one without. We used three different coronal models: a semi-empirical model (potential field source surface or PFSS) and two different magnetohydrodynamic models (Wind Predict and Wind Predict-AW). We compared all the models with both remote sensing and in situ observations. We find that the inclusion of the far-side active region in the various models has a small local impact due to the limited amount of flux of the sunspot (at most 8% of the total map flux), which leads to coronal hole changes of around 7% for all models. Interestingly, there is a more global impact on the magnetic structure seen in the current sheet, with clear changes in the coronal hole boundaries visible in extreme ultra-violet (EUV) on the western limb. For the Wind Predict-AW model, we demonstrate that the inclusion of the far-side data improves both the structure of the streamers and the connectivity to the spacecraft. In conclusion, the inclusion of a single far-side active region may have a small local effect with respect to the total magnetic flux, but it has global effects on the magnetic structure, and thus it must be taken into account to accurately describe the Sun-Earth connection. The flattening of the heliospheric current sheet for all models reveals an increase of the source surface height, which affects the open and closed magnetic field line distributions.