Data-driven simulation of a magnetic flux rope in the heliosphere: from birth to death

Magnetic flux ropes are bundles of twisted magnetic field lines produced by the internal flowing electric currents, which are regarded as one of the basic and pivot structures in solar and space physics. Statistics showed that about 90% of the erupting filaments are supported by flux ropes, implying that the majority of solar eruptions are driven by flux ropes. Moreover, the post-eruption flux ropes in interplanetary space, called interplanetary magnetic clouds, are the major drivers of geomagnetic storms. As such, a numerical model that is capable of capturing the whole process of the flux rope from its birth to its death or eruption is certainly crucial for predicting adverse space weather events. Recently, we develop a data-driven model combined with the observed vector magnetic field and velocity field, which reproduces the formation and confined eruption of an observed flux rope. We find that the photospheric shearing and converging plasma flows play a critical role in the flux rope formation, and the magnetic configuration is analogous to the “tether-cutting”  reconnection illustration. Regarding the confined eruption, we find that the deformation of the flux rope during the eruption causes an increase in downward tension force, which suppresses the ascendence of the flux rope. This finding might shed light on why many large-angle rotation events are always confined and torus unstable.