Feng Chen
Abstract We present the application of the data-driven branch of the MURaM code to the extensively studied flare-productive Active Region 11158. We refine the hybrid model strategy—which has been described in the earlier papers of this series—to model the emergence of the active region during 4 solar days, starting shortly before 2011 February 11 until the eruption of an X2.2 flare on 2011 February 15. After 4 days of evolution, a major eruption of a magnetic flux rope occurs in the simulation approximately 3 hr (3% difference) before the real flare. The eruption leads to magnetic reconnection, which contributes to bulk heating in the chromosphere and corona. The deposition of the flare energy in the chromosphere causes strong condensations and evaporations, which fill hot postflare loops and bright flare ribbons that exhibit separation and extension similar to the observed ribbon evolution. The synthesized soft-X-ray flux corresponds to the X class, which is close to the real event. The upward eruption of the flux rope leads to a piston-driven shock and horizontal expansion that exert a strong downward impact on the lower atmosphere and generate an apparently fast-propagating chromospheric Moreton wave. We conclude that the data-driven radiative simulation of this active region can reproduce the key observational results of the real flare and demonstrate the great potential of this method for studying solar eruptions in a realistic corona environment.