Single ICMEs and Complex Transient Structures in the Solar wind in 2010 -- 2011

TL;DR

This study analyzes the properties, sources, and interactions of ICMEs in the solar wind during 2010-2011, highlighting the complexity of multi-source events and their identification through plasma ion composition.

Contribution

It provides a detailed classification of complex ICME structures based on ion composition and source interactions, using combined observational and modeling approaches.

Findings

ICME numbers correlate less with flare and sunspot activity in Cycle 24.

Multiple-source ICMEs often form complex, merged structures due to stream interactions.

Ion composition signatures effectively identify interacting streams and their origins.

Abstract

We analyzed statistics, solar sources and properties of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) in the solar wind. In comparison with the first eight years of Cycle 23, during the same period of Cycle 24 the yearly numbers of ICMEs were less correlated with the flare numbers (0.68 vs 0.78) and sunspot numbers (0.66 vs 0.81), whereas the ICME correlation with coronal mass ejections (CMEs) was higher (0.77 vs 0.70). For the period January 2010 -- August 2011, we identified solar sources of the ICMEs included in the Richardson and Cane list. The solar sources of ICME were determined from coronagraph observations of the Earth-directed CMEs supplemented by modeling of their propagation in the heliosphere using the kinematic models and the WSA Enlil Cone MHD-based model. A detailed analysis of the ICME solar sources in the period under study showed that in 11 cases out of 23 the observed ICME might be associated with two or more sources. In cases of multiple-source events, the resulting solar wind disturbances may be described as complex (merged) structures occurred due to the stream interactions with properties depending on the type of participating streams. As a reliable marker for identification of interacting streams and their sources, we used the plasma ion composition, as it becomes frozen in the low corona and remains unchanged in the heliosphere. According to the ion composition signatures, we classified these cases into three types: complex ejecta originating from weak and strong CME-CME interactions, as well as merged interaction regions originating from the CME-high-speed stream interactions. We described temporal profiles of the ion composition for the single-source and multi-source solar wind structures and compared them with the ICME signatures determined from the kinematic and magnetic field parameters of the solar wind.