Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userA comparison of CME expansion speeds between solar cycles 23 and 24
111
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
We report on a comparison of the expansion speeds of limb coronal mass ejections (CMEs) between solar cycles 23 and 24. We selected a large number of limb CME events associated with soft X-ray flare size greater than or equal to M1.0 from both cycles. We used data and measurement tools available at the online CME catalog (https://cdaw.gsfc.nasa.gov) that consists of the properties of all CMEs detected by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatorys (SOHO) Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO). We found that the expansion speeds in cycle 24 are higher than those in cycle 23. We also found that the relation between radial and expansion speeds has different slopes in cycles 23 and 24. The cycle 24 slope is 45% higher than that in cycle 23. The expansion speed is also higher for a given radial speed. The difference increases with speed. For a 2000 km/s radial speed, the expansion speed in cycle 24 is ~48% higher. These results present additional evidence for the anomalous expansion of cycle 24-CMEs, which is due to the reduced total pressure in the heliosphere.
rate research
Read More
The Suns polar magnetic fields change their polarity near the maximum of sunspot activity. We analyzed the polarity reversal epochs in Solar Cycles 21 to 24. There was a triple reversal in the N-hemisphere in Solar Cycle 24 and single reversals in the rest of cases. Epochs of the polarity reversal from measurements of the Wilcox Solar Observatory (WSO) are compared with ones when the reversals were completed in the N- and S-hemispheres. The reversal times were compared with hemispherical sunspot activity and with the Heliospheric Current Sheet (HCS) tilts, too. It was found that reversals occurred at the epoch of the sunspot activity maximum in Cycles 21 and 23, and after the corresponding maxima in Cycles 22 and 24, and one-two years after maximal HCS tilts calculated in WSO. Reversals in Solar Cycles 21, 22, 23, and 24 were completed first in the N-hemisphere and then in the S-hemisphere after 0.6, 1.1, 0.7, and 0.9 years, respectively. The polarity inversion in the near-polar latitude range pm(55-90)^circ occurred from 0.5 to 2.0 years earlier that the times when the reversals were completed in corresponding hemisphere. Using the maximal smoothed WSO polar field as precursor we estimated that amplitude of Solar Cycle 25 will reach 116 pm 12 in values of smoothed monthly sunspot numbers and will be comparable with the current cycle amplitude equaled to 116.4.
We study the clustering properties of fast Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) that occurred during solar cycles 23 and 24. We apply two methods: the Max spectrum method can detect the predominant clusters and the de-clustering threshold time method provides details on the typical clustering properties and time scales. Our analysis shows that during the different phases of solar cycles 23 and 24, CMEs with speed $geq 1000 km/s$ preferentially occur as isolated events and in clusters with on average two members. However, clusters with more members appear particularly during the maximum phases of the solar cycles. Over the total period and in the maximum phases of solar cycles 23 and 24, about 50% are isolated events, 18% (12%) occur in clusters with 2 (3) members, and another 20% in larger clusters $geq 4$, whereas in solar minimum fast CMEs tend to occur more frequently as isolated events (62%). During different solar cycle phases, the typical de-clustering time scales of fast CMEs are $tau_c=28-32 hrs$, irrespective of the very different occurrence frequencies of CMEs during solar minimum and maximum. These findings suggest that $tau_c$ for extreme events may reflect the characteristic energy build-up time for large flare and CME-prolific active ARs. Associating statistically the clustering properties of fast CMEs with the Disturbance storm index Dst at Earth suggests that fast CMEs occuring in clusters tend to produce larger geomagnetic storms than isolated fast CMEs. This may be related to CME-CME interaction producing a more complex and stronger interaction with the Earth magnetosphere.
We present the characteristics of DH type II bursts for the Solar Cycles 23 and 24. The bursts are classified according to their end frequencies into three categories, i.e. Low Frequency Group (LFG; 20 kHz $leq$ $f$ $leq$ 200 kHz), Medium Frequency Group (MFG; 200 kHz $<$ $f$ $leq$ 1 MHz), and High Frequency Group (HFG; 1 MHz $<$ $f$ $le$ 16 MHz). We find that the sources for LFG, MFG, and HFG events are homogeneously distributed over the active region belt. Our analysis shows a drastic reduction of the DH type II events during Solar Cycle 24 which includes only 35% of the total events (i.e. 179 out of 514). Despite having smaller number of DH type II events in the Solar Cycle 24, it contains a significantly higher fraction of LFG events compared to the previous cycle (32% $versus$ 24%). However, within the LFG group the cycle 23 exhibits significant dominance of type II bursts that extend below 50 kHz, suggesting rich population of powerful CMEs travelling beyond half of the Sun-Earth distance. The events of LFG group display strongest association with faster and wider (more than 82% events are halo) CMEs while at the source location they predominantly trigger large M/X class flares (in more than 83% cases). Our analysis also indicates that CME initial speed or flare energetics are partly related with the duration of type II burst and that survival of CME associated shock is determined by multiple factors/parameters related to CMEs, flares, and state of coronal and interplanetary medium. The profiles relating CME heights with respect to the end frequencies of DH type II bursts suggest that for HFG and MFG categories, the location for majority of CMEs ($approx$65%-70%) is in well compliance with ten-fold Leblanc coronal density model, while for LFG events a lower value of density multiplier ($approx$3) seems to be compatible.
Similar to the Sun, other stars shed mass and magnetic flux via ubiquitous quasi-steady wind and episodic stellar coronal mass ejections (CMEs). We investigate the mass loss rate via solar wind and CMEs as a function of solar magnetic variability represented in terms of sunspot number and solar X-ray background luminosity. We estimate the contribution of CMEs to the total solar wind mass flux in the ecliptic and beyond, and its variation over different phases of the solar activity cycles. The study exploits the number of sunspots observed, coronagraphic observations of CMEs near the Sun by SOHO/LASCO, in situ observations of the solar wind at 1 AU by WIND, and GOES X-ray flux during solar cycle 23 and 24. We note that the X-ray background luminosity, occurrence rate of CMEs and ICMEs, solar wind mass flux, and associated mass loss rates from the Sun do not decrease as strongly as the sunspot number from the maximum of solar cycle 23 to the next maximum. Our study confirms a true physical increase in CME activity relative to the sunspot number in cycle 24. We show that the CME occurrence rate and associated mass loss rate can be better predicted by X-ray background luminosity than the sunspot number. The solar wind mass loss rate which is an order of magnitude more than the CME mass loss rate shows no obvious dependency on cyclic variation in sunspot number and solar X-ray background luminosity. These results have implications to the study of solar-type stars.
Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are highly dynamic events originating in the solar atmosphere, that show a wide range of kinematic properties and are the major drivers of the space weather. The angular width of the CMEs is a crucial parameter in the study of their kinematics. The fact that whether slow and fast CMEs (as based on their relative speed to the average solar wind speed) are associated with different processes at the location of their ejection is still debatable. Thus, in this study, we investigate their angular width to understand the differences between the slow and fast CMEs. We study the width distribution of slow and fast CMEs and find that they follow different power law distributions, with a power law indices ($alpha$) of -1.1 and -3.7 for fast and slow CMEs respectively. To reduce the projection effects, we further restrict our analysis to only limb events as derived from manual catalog and we find similar results. We then associate the slow and fast CMEs to their source regions, and classified the sources as Active Regions (ARs) and Prominence Eruptions (PEs). We find that slow and fast CMEs coming from ARs and PEs, also follow different power laws in their width distributions. This clearly hints towards a possibility that different mechanisms might be involved in the width expansion of slow and fast CMEs coming from different sources.These results are also crucial from the space weather perspective since the width of the CME is an important factor in that aspect.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
