Effect of the Weakened Heliosphere in Solar Cycle 24 on the Properties of Coronal Mass Ejections

TL;DR

This study compares solar cycle 24 to cycle 23, revealing that a weakened heliosphere leads to larger but less magnetically intense CMEs, fewer high-energy particle events, and altered CME propagation characteristics.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how a weakened heliospheric environment in solar cycle 24 affects CME properties and space weather phenomena, extending previous limb CME studies.

Findings

CME size increased in SC 24 despite weaker magnetic content

Fewer high-energy solar energetic particle events occurred in SC 24

Slower but wider CMEs, with halos forming sooner in SC 24

Abstract

Solar cycle (SC) 24 has come to an end by the end of 2019, providing information on two full cycles to understand the manifestations of SC 24, the smallest cycle in the Space Age that has resulted in a weak heliospheric state indicated by the reduced pressure. The backreaction of the heliospheric state is to make the coronal mass ejections (CMEs) appear physically bigger than in SC 23, but their magnetic content has been diluted resulting in a lower geoeffectiveness. The heliospheric magnetic field is also lower in SC 24, leading to the dearth of high-energy solar energetic particle (SEP) events. These space weather events closely follow fast and wide (FW) CMEs. All but FW CMEs are higher in number in SC 24. The CME rate vs. sunspot number (SSN) correlation is high in both cycles but the rate increases faster in SC 24. We revisit the study of limb CMEs (those with source regions within 30 degrees from the limb) previously studied over partial cycles. We find that limb CMEs are slower in SC 24 as in the general population but wider. Limb halo CMEs follow the same trend of slower SC-24 CMEs. However, the SC-24 CMEs become halos at a shorter distance from the Sun. Thus, slower CMEs becoming halos sooner is a clear indication of the backreaction of the weaker heliospheric state on CMEs. We can further pin down the heliospheric state as the reason for the altered CME properties because the associated flares have similar distributions in the two cycles, unaffected by the heliospheric state.