Coronal mass ejections and solar wind mass fluxes over the heliosphere during solar cycles 23 and 24 (1996–2014). Issue 1 (19th January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lamy, P.; Floyd, O.; Quémerais, E.; Boclet, B.; Ferron, S.
• Is Part Of: Journal of geophysical research. Volume 122:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 50
• Page End: 62
• Publication Date: 2017-01-19
• Subjects: coronal mass ejection -- solar wind; Magnetospheric physics -- Periodicals; Space environment -- Periodicals; Cosmic physics -- Periodicals; Planets -- Atmospheres -- Periodicals; Heliosphere (Astrophysics) -- Periodicals; Geophysics -- Periodicals; 523.01
• DOI: 10.1002/2016JA022970
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2169-9380

Abstract

Abstract: Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) play a major role in the heliosphere, and their contribution to the solar wind mass flux, already considered in the Skylab and Solwind eras with conflicting results, is reexamined in the light of 19 years (1996–2014) of SOHO observations with the Large Angle and Spectroscopic Coronagraph (LASCO‐C2) for the CMEs and extended for the first time to all latitudes thanks to the whole‐heliosphere data from the Solar Wind ANisotropies (SWAN) instrument supplemented by in situ data aggregated in the OMNI database. First, several mass estimates reported in the ARTEMIS (Automated Recognition of Transient Events and Marseille Inventory from Synoptic maps) catalog of LASCO CMEs are compared with determinations based on the combined observations with the twin STEREO/Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation coronagraphs in order to ascertain their validity. A simple geometric model of the CMEs is introduced to generate Carrington maps of their mass flux and then to produce annualized synoptic maps. The Lyman α SWAN data are inverted to similarly produce synoptic maps to be compared with those of the CME flux. The ratio of the annualized CME to solar wind mass flux is found to closely track the solar cycle over the heliosphere. In the near‐ecliptic region and at latitudes up to ∼55°, this ratio was negligibly small during the solar minima of cycles 22/23 and 23/24 and rose to 6% and 5%, respectively, at the maximum of solar cycles 23 and 24. These maximum ratios increased at higher latitudes, but this result is likely biased by the inherent limitation of determining the true latitude of CMEs. Key Points: Assess the contribution of coronal mass ejections to solar wind mass flux usingSOHO/LASCO, SOHO/SWAN, and OMNI data Their ratio closely tracked the solarcycle over the heliosphere It varied from negligible during the solar minima of cycles 22/23 and 23/24 to 6 and 5% at the maximum of cycles 23 and 24, respectively