Three-dimensional MHD solar wind model with turbulence transport

A. V. Usmanov 1,2, W. H. Matthaeus 1, and M. L. Goldstein 2, B. Breech 1

1 Department of Physics and Astronomy and Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716

2 Code 673, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 2077

We present initial results from a global three-dimensional solar wind model that describes properties of the large scale solar wind, interplanetary magnetic field, and turbulence throughout the heliosphere from 0.3 AU to 100 AU. The model is based on numerical solutions of the large-scale Reynolds-averaged MHD equations coupled with a set of small-scale transport equations for the turbulence energy per unit mass, normalized cross-helicity, and correlation scale. The combined set of time-dependent equations is solved in the frame of reference corotating with the Sun by a time-relaxation method using a semidiscrete third-order Central Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (CWENO) numerical scheme. The initial state formulation is adapted from the numerical solution for the steady solar corona and solar wind with WKB Alfvén waves [Usmanov and Goldstein, 2003] and employs a marching method for outward integration of the steady-state equations to 100 AU. We use this model to study the self-consistent interaction between the large-scale solar wind and smaller-scale turbulence and the role of the turbulence in the large scale dynamics and temperature distribution in the solar wind.