Title: A propagation tool to connect remote-sensing observations with in-situ measurements of heliospheric structures,
Abstract: The remoteness of the Sun and the harsh conditions prevailing in the solar
corona have so far limited the observational data used in the study of solar
physics to remote-sensing observations taken either from the ground or from
space. In contrast, the `solar wind laboratory' is directly measured in situ by
a fleet of spacecraft measuring the properties of the plasma and magnetic
fields at specific points in space. Since 2007, the solar-terrestrial relations
observatory (STEREO) has been providing images of the solar wind that flows
between the solar corona and spacecraft making in-situ measurements. This has
allowed scientists to directly connect processes imaged near the Sun with the
subsequent effects measured in the solar wind. This new capability prompted the
development of a series of tools and techniques to track heliospheric
structures through space. This article presents one of these tools, a web-based
interface called the 'Propagation Tool' that offers an integrated research
environment to study the evolution of coronal and solar wind structures, such
as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs) and
Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs). These structures can be propagated from the
Sun outwards to or alternatively inwards from planets and spacecraft situated
in the inner and outer heliosphere. In this paper, we present the global
architecture of the tool, discuss some of the assumptions made to simulate the
evolution of the structures and show how the tool connects to different
databases.