Validation of a global 3D heliospheric model with observations for the May 12, 1997 CME event

We simulate the May 12, 1997 space weather event from the Sun to the Earth. The initiation of the coronal mass ejection (CME) was done by superimposing a semi-circular, out-of-equilibrium magnetic flux rope onto a semi-empirical, steadystate solar corona model (SCM). The result at 1AU was obtained by coupling the SCM with an inner heliosphere model (IHM). Our results demonstrate that the CME parameters can be obtained from magnetogram data and white-light observations and that the results at 1AU can be simulated faster than the real time, even with the use of a relatively moderate computation resources. This particular event, however, is found to be very difficult to model, despite the fact that it is temporarily isolated in time from other CME events and it occurred during a solar minimum period. We found that the active region flux rope should be resolved with higher resolution in order to maintain its integrity while propagating into space. This way we can obtain a better agreement with measurements at 1AU. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.