Solar wind modelling with EUHFORIA and comparison with the PSP observations

During recent decades, numerous studies were devoted to improve our understanding of the origin and the propagation of the fast solar wind, and its accurate modelling. The solar wind characteristics were poorly mapped up to now by the in situ observations, available mostly only at about 1AU. The novel Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observations, that are employed in this study, allow us to map the solar wind characteristics in the low solar corona at only few tens of solar radii, and to study the solar wind characteristics. These observations are also very important for understanding how accurately we can model the solar wind characteristics employing models such as EUHFORIA (European heliospheric forecasting information asset, Pomoell & Poedts, 2018), at distances rather close to the Sun.
In this study, we inspect the solar wind characteristics during the first eight closest PSP approaches to the Sun. The solar wind plasma characteristics observed by PSP are compared with the modelling results using the default set-up of EUHFORIA. We also calibrate the inner boundary (0.1 AU) conditions in EUHFORIA, but without changing the Wang-Sheeley-Arge formula which describes the solar wind characteristics at the inner boundary. The aim is to better model the solar wind at distances close to the Sun. We also use a magnetic connectivity tool (developed by ESA’s MADAWG group) to better associate the fast solar wind with its source region on the Sun.