Solar Cycle Dependence of ICME Composition

TL;DR

This study reveals that the composition of interplanetary CMEs varies with the solar cycle, showing positive correlations for most elements and charge states, with notable exceptions like C/O ratios and Ne/O ratios, indicating complex solar-terrestrial interactions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive statistical analysis of ICME composition variations over a solar cycle, highlighting new correlations and inverse relationships not previously detailed.

Findings

ICME compositions depend on the solar cycle, increasing during solar maximum.

Most ionic charge states and elemental abundances are positively correlated with sunspot numbers.

Ne/O ratios in ICMEs and slow solar wind show opposite solar cycle dependence.

Abstract

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are one of the most energetic explosions in the solar atmosphere, and their occurrence rates exhibit obvious solar cycle dependence with more events taking place around solar maximum. Composition of interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs), referring to the charge states and elemental abundances of ions, opens an important avenue to investigate CMEs. In this paper, we conduct a statistical study on the charge states of five elements (Mg, Fe, Si, C, and O) and the relative abundances of six elements (Mg/O, Fe/O, Si/O, C/O, Ne/O, and He/O) within ICMEs from 1998 to 2011, and find that all the ICME compositions possess the solar cycle dependence. All of the ionic charge states and most of the relative elemental abundances are positively correlated with sunspot numbers (SSNs), and only the C/O ratios are inversely correlated with the SSNs. The compositions (except the C/O) increase with the SSNs during the ascending phase (1998--2000 and 2009--2011) and remain elevated during solar maximum and descending phase (2000--2005) compared to solar minimum (2007--2009). The charge states of low-FIP (first ionization potential) elements (Mg, Fe, and Si) and their relative abundances are correlated well, while no clear correlation is observed between the C$^{6+}$/C$^{5+}$ or C$^{6+}$/C$^{4+}$ and C/O. Most interestingly, we find that the Ne/O ratios of ICMEs and slow solar wind have the opposite solar cycle dependence.