Three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic modeling of the solar corona and solar wind for a highly-tilted solar dipole

A. V. Usmanov and M. L. Goldstein, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA

A fully three-dimensional MHD model is used to simulate the global steady-state structure of the solar corona and solar wind for a solar magnetic dipole tilted by 60 and 90 deg. to the solar rotation axis. The model accounts for the energy and momentum addition from Alfvén waves in the region between the base of the corona and Earth’s orbit and for the effects of interstellar pickup protons in the outer heliosphere (1-100 AU). We present simulation results on the evolution of the heliospheric current sheet and the corotating interaction regions with heliocentric distance and on the effects of pickup protons in this evolution.