Solar cycle variation of coronal mass ejections contribution to solar wind mass flux

TL;DR

This study investigates how the contribution of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) to solar wind mass flux varies across the solar cycle by analyzing CME properties and their correlation with near-Earth solar wind measurements.

Contribution

It provides a long-term analysis of CME occurrence rates, speeds, widths, and masses, and quantifies their contribution to solar wind mass flux during different solar cycle phases.

Findings

CME contribution to solar wind varies with solar cycle phase.

A significant fraction of solar wind mass near Earth is from CMEs during solar maximum.

Correlations between CME parameters and in-situ solar wind measurements are established.

Abstract

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) contributes to the perturbation of solar wind in the heliosphere. Thus, depending on the different phases of the solar cycle and the rate of CME occurrence, contribution of CMEs to solar wind parameters near the Earth changes. In the present study, we examine the long term occurrence rate of CMEs, their speeds, angular widths and masses. We attempt to find correlation between near sun parameters, determined using white light images from coronagraphs, with solar wind measurements near the Earth from in-situ instruments. Importantly, we attempt to find what fraction of the averaged solar wind mass near the Earth is provided by the CMEs during different phases of the solar cycles.