How do fits of simulated magnetic clouds correspond to their real shapes in 3-D?

Abstract. Magnetic clouds are important objects for space weather forecasters due to their impact on the Earth's magnetosphere and their consequences during geomagnetic storms. Being considered as cylindrical or toroidal flux ropes, their size, velocity, magnetic field strength, and axis orientation determine its impact on Earth. Above mentioned parameters are usually extracted from model fits using measurements from one-spacecraft crossings of these structures. In order to relate solar events with these spacecraft observations, the parameters are then compared to situation at the Sun around a most probable source region with a goal to correlate them with near-Sun observed quantities for prediction purposes. In the past we performed three-dimensional simulations of magnetic cloud propagation in the inner heliosphere. Simulated spacecraft measurements are fitted by models of magnetic clouds and resulting parameters are compared with real shapes of magnetic clouds which can be directly obtained from our simulations. The comparison shows that cloud parameters are determined quite reliably for spacecraft crossings near the cloud axis.