Space Weather at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Before its Perihelion

Interplanetary scintillation observations, as well as the ENLIL 3D-MHD model when employed either separately or in combination with the observations, enable the making of predictions of the solar wind density and speed at locations in the inner heliosphere. Both methods are utilized here to predict the arrival at the Rosetta spacecraft and its adjacent comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko of, flare related, interplanetary propagating shocks and coronal mass ejections in September 2014. The predictions of density and speed variations at the comet are successfully matched with signatures recorded by the magnetometer and the ion and electron sensor instruments in the Rosetta Plasma Package, thereby providing confidence that the signatures recorded aboard the spacecraft were solar related. The plasma perturbations which were detected some 9-10 days after significant flaring in September 2014 are interpreted to have been signatures of the arrivals of three coronal mass ejection related shocks at the comet. Also, a solar energetic particle event was recorded at 3.7 AU within similar to 30 min of the onset of a flare by the Standard Radiation Monitor aboard Rosetta.