Erlangen 2026 – scientific programme
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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik
EP 10: Exoplanets and Astrobiology
EP 10.4: Talk
Friday, March 20, 2026, 10:00–10:15, KH 01.019
High-Resolution 3D Corona–Wind Models for Exoplanet Space Weather Around Solar-Type Stars — •Yuehong Chen and Julián Alvarado-Gómez — Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
Space-weather conditions experienced by exoplanets are strongly influenced by the state of the host-star corona and its magnetized wind. Existing studies typically constrain either coronal X-ray emission (spatially unresolved) or stellar winds (difficult to observe), and rarely connect both within a fully three-dimensional (3D) framework. Here we use the Space Weather Modeling Framework with the Alfvén Wave Solar Model (SWMF-AWSoM), driven by global convective dynamo-generated surface magnetic maps, to model fully 3D solar-type stellar coronae and winds spanning rotation rates 1.0–23.3 Ω⊙. Our models reproduce dense (1–2 orders of magnitude above solar) and ultra-hot (∼ 10 MK) coronae at high spatial resolution. We further show that enhanced coronal activity is accompanied by stronger winds, leading to elevated wind pressures that shape exoplanetary space environments. As illustrative cases, we evaluate wind pressures for super-Earth candidates Kepler-1638 b and Kepler-452 b, and find that an Earth-like dynamo can plausibly sustain magnetopauses of rM≃ 5–10 Rp under quiescent wind conditions. Overall, given the limited ability of current instrumentation to characterize exoplanet high-energy irradiation and particle environments in detail, our framework provides observation-informed inputs for exoplanet space-weather and habitability studies around solar-type stars.
Keywords: Exoplanet space weather; Stellar coronae; Magnetized stellar winds; Young solar analogues; Data-driven 3D MHD simulations
