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In this work, we perform a statistical study of magnetic field fluctuations in the solar wind at 1 au using permutation entropy and complexity analysis and the investigation of the temporal variations of the Hurst exponents. Slow and fast wind, magnetic clouds, interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME)-driven sheath regions, and slow–fast stream interaction regions (SIRs) have been investigated separately. Our key finding is that there are significant differences in permutation entropy and complexity values between the solar wind types at larger timescales and little difference at small timescales. Differences become more distinct with increasing timescales, suggesting that smaller-scale turbulent features are more universal. At larger timescales, the analysis method can be used to identify localised spatial structures. We found that, except in magnetic clouds, fluctuations are largely anti-persistent and that the Hurst exponents, in particular in compressive structures (sheaths and SIRs), exhibit a clear locality. Our results shows that, in all cases apart from magnetic clouds at the largest scales, solar wind fluctuations are stochastic, with the fast wind having the highest entropies and low complexities. Magnetic clouds, in turn, exhibit the lowest entropy and highest complexity, consistent with them being coherent structures in which the magnetic field components vary in an ordered manner. SIRs, slow wind and ICME sheaths are intermediate in relation to magnetic clouds and fast wind, reflecting the increasingly ordered structure. Our results also indicate that permutation entropy–complexity analysis is a useful tool for characterising the solar wind and investigating the nature of its fluctuations.

In this study, we present the first-ever direct measurements of synchrotron-emitting heliospheric traveling shocks, intercepted by the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) during its close encounters. Given that much of our understanding of powerful astrophysical shocks is derived from synchrotron radiation, these observations by PSP provide an unprecedented opportunity to explore how shocks accelerate relativistic electrons and the conditions under which they emit radiation. The probe’s unparalleled capabilities to measure both electromagnetic fields and energetic particles with high precision in the near-Sun environment has allowed us to directly correlate the distribution of relativistic electrons with the resulting photon emissions. Our findings reveal that strong quasi-parallel shocks emit radiation at significantly higher intensities than quasi-perpendicular shocks due to the efficient acceleration of ultrarelativistic electrons. These experimental results are consistent with theory and recent observations of supernova remnant shocks and advance our understanding of shock physics across diverse space environments.

This paper offers a fresh perspective on solar chromosphere heating and plasma outflows, focusing on the contribution of waves generated by solar granulation. Utilizing a 2.5D numerical experiment for the partially ionized lower solar atmosphere, we investigate the dissipation of these waves and their impact on plasma outflows and chromospheric heating via ion-neutral collisions. Employing the JOint ANalytical and Numerical Approach code, we adopt two-fluid model equations, examining partially ionized hydrogen plasma dynamics, including protons+electrons and neutrals, treated as two separate fluids that are coupled through ion-neutral collisions. Our investigation focuses on a quiet solar chromosphere region characterized by gravitational stratification and magnetic confinement by an initially set single magnetic arcade. The primary source of the waves is the solar convection beneath the photosphere. Our results demonstrate that ion-neutral collisions result in the dissipation of such waves, releasing thermal energy that heats the chromosphere plasma. Notably, this is accompanied by upward-directed plasma flows. Finally, we conclude that wave dissipation due to ion-neutral collisions in the two-fluid plasma model induces chromosphere heating and plasma outflows.

Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) have low proton beta across a broad range of heliocentric distances and a magnetic flux rope structure at large scales, making them a unique environment for studying solar wind fluctuations. Power spectra of magnetic field fluctuations in 28 ICMEs observed between 0.25 and 0.95 au by Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe have been examined. At large scales, the spectra were dominated by power contained in the flux ropes. Subtraction of the background flux rope fields increased the mean spectral index from −5/3 to −3/2 at kd _i ≤ 10 ^−3 . Rope subtraction also revealed shorter correlation lengths in the magnetic field. The spectral index was typically near −5/3 in the inertial range at all radial distances regardless of rope subtraction and steepened to values consistently below −3 with transition to kinetic scales. The high-frequency break point terminating the inertial range evolved approximately linearly with radial distance and was closer in scale to the proton inertial length than the proton gyroscale, as expected for plasma at low proton beta. Magnetic compressibility at inertial scales did not show any significant correlation with radial distance, in contrast to the solar wind generally. In ICMEs, the distinctive spectral properties at injection scales appear mostly determined by the global flux rope structure while transition-kinetic properties are more influenced by the low proton beta; the intervening inertial range appears independent of both ICME features, indicative of a system-independent scaling of the turbulence.

The magnetic twist is one of the key defining parameters of solar flux ropes (FRs). The routine computation of the winding of magnetic field lines, referred to as the twist, has the potential to lead to significant advancement in the field of solar physics and solar—terrestrial research, e.g., by enabling more accurate investigations of FR morphology, stability, and temporal evolution. However, this has been hampered by the axial-dependence of the solution and the availability of simpler, albeit approximate, methods. Here we introduce the Magnetic Field Analysis Tools (MAFIAT) python library and Jupyter notebooks for the computation and exploitation of this quantity. The required axis location is specified manually by the user, either with their own preferred method, or using the twist number calculated from the parallel current by Magnetic Field Analysis Tools. The notebooks allow users to create a variety of novel visualisations of FRs and their twist distributions for scientific study. Magnetic Field Analysis Tools is written in Python and is released under the BSD 3-Clause Licence. Code available at: https://github.com/pricedj/mafiat.

Sheath regions of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) are formed when the upstream solar wind is deflected and compressed due to the propagation and expansion of the ICME. Small-scale flux ropes found in the solar wind can thus be swept into ICME-driven sheath regions. They may also be generated locally within the sheaths through a range of processes. This work applies wavelet analysis to obtain the normalized reduced magnetic helicity, normalized cross helicity, and normalized residual energy, and uses them to identify small-scale flux ropes and Alfvén waves in 55 ICME-driven sheath regions observed by the Wind spacecraft in the near-Earth solar wind. Their occurrence is investigated separately for three different frequency ranges between 10–2 − 10–4 Hz. We find that small scale flux ropes are more common in ICME sheaths than in the upstream wind, implying that they are at least to some extent actively generated in the sheath and not just compressed from the upstream wind. Alfvén waves occur more evenly in the upstream wind and in the sheath. This study also reveals that while the highest frequency (smallest scale) flux ropes occur relatively evenly across the sheath, the lower frequency (largest scale) flux ropes peak near the ICME leading edge. This suggests that they could have different physical origins, and that processes near the ICME leading edge are important for generating the larger scale population.

Radial diffusion coefficients quantify non-adiabatic transport of energetic particles by electromagnetic field fluctuations in planetary radiation belts. Theoretically, radial diffusion occurs for an ensemble of particles that experience irreversible violation of their third adiabatic invariant, which is equivalent to a change in their Roederer L* parameter. Thus, the Roederer L* coordinate is the fundamental quantity from which radial diffusion coefficients can be computed. In this study, we present a methodology to calculate the Lagrangian derivative of L* from global magnetospheric simulations, and test it with an application to Vlasiator, a hybrid-Vlasov model of near-Earth space. We use a Hamiltonian formalism for particles confined to closed drift shells with conserved first and second adiabatic invariants to compute changes in the guiding center drift paths due to electric and magnetic field fluctuations. We investigate the feasibility of this methodology by computing the time derivative of L* for an equatorial ultrarelativistic electron population travelling along four guiding center drift paths in the outer radiation belt during a 5 minute portion of a Vlasiator simulation. Radial diffusion in this simulation is primarily driven by ultralow frequency waves in the Pc3 range (10–45 s period range) that are generated in the foreshock and transmitted through the magnetopause to the outer radiation belt environment. Our results show that an alternative methodology to compute detailed radial diffusion transport is now available and could form the basis for comparison studies between numerical and observational measurements of radial transport in the Earth’s radiation belts.

In this work, we investigate magnetic field fluctuations in three coronal mass ejection (CME)-driven sheath regions at 1 AU, with their speeds ranging from slow to fast. The data set we use consists primarily of high-resolution (0.092 s) magnetic field measurements from the Wind spacecraft. We analyse magnetic field fluctuation amplitudes, compressibility, and spectral properties of fluctuations. We also analyse intermittency using various approaches; we apply the partial variance of increments (PVIs) method, investigate probability distribution functions of fluctuations, including their skewness and kurtosis, and perform a structure function analysis. Our analysis is conducted separately for three different subregions within the sheath and one in the solar wind ahead of it, each 1 h in duration. We find that, for all cases, the transition from the solar wind ahead to the sheath generates new fluctuations, and the intermittency and compressibility increase, while the region closest to the ejecta leading edge resembled the solar wind ahead. The spectral indices exhibit large variability in different parts of the sheath but are typically steeper than Kolmogorov's in the inertial range. The structure function analysis produced generally the best fit with the extended p model, suggesting that turbulence is not fully developed in CME sheaths near Earth's orbit. Both Kraichnan–Iroshinikov and Kolmogorov's forms yielded high intermittency but different spectral slopes, thus questioning how well these models can describe turbulence in sheaths. At the smallest timescales investigated, the spectral indices indicate shallower than expected slopes in the dissipation range (between −2 and −2.5), suggesting that, in CME-driven sheaths at 1 AU, the energy cascade from larger to smaller scales could still be ongoing through the ion scale. Many turbulent properties of sheaths (e.g. spectral indices and compressibility) resemble those of the slow wind rather than the fast. They are also partly similar to properties reported in the terrestrial magnetosheath, in particular regarding their intermittency, compressibility, and absence of Kolmogorov's type turbulence. Our study also reveals that turbulent properties can vary considerably within the sheath. This was particularly the case for the fast sheath behind the strong and quasi-parallel shock, including a small, coherent structure embedded close to its midpoint. Our results support the view of the complex formation of the sheath and different physical mechanisms playing a role in generating fluctuations in them.

The energetic electron content in the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding the Earth can vary dramatically at several timescales, and these strong electron fluxes present a hazard for spacecraft traversing the belts. The belt response to solar wind driving is, however, largely unpredictable, and the direct response to specific large-scale heliospheric structures has not been considered previously. We investigate the immediate response of electron fluxes in the outer belt that are driven by sheath regions preceding interplanetary coronal mass ejections and the associated wave activity in the inner magnetosphere. We consider the events recorded from 2012 to 2018 in the Van Allen Probes era to utilise the energy- and radial-distance-resolved electron flux observations of the twin spacecraft mission. We perform a statistical study of the events by using the superposed epoch analysis in which the sheaths are superposed separately from the ejecta and resampled to the same average duration. Our results show that the wave power of ultra-low frequency Pc5 and electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves, as measured by a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), is higher during the sheath than during the ejecta. However, the level of chorus wave power, as measured by the Van Allen Probes, remains approximately the same due to similar substorm activity during the sheath and ejecta. Electron flux enhancements are common at low energies ( MeV) throughout the outer belt (L = 3–6), whereas depletion predominantly occurs at high energies for high radial distances (L>4). It is distinctive that the depletion extends to lower energies at larger distances. We suggest that this L-shell and energy-dependent depletion results from the magnetopause shadowing that dominates the losses at large distances, while the wave–particle interactions dominate closer to the Earth. We also show that non-geoeffective sheaths cause significant changes in the outer belt electron fluxes.

We report a statistical analysis of magnetic field fluctuations in 79 coronal mass ejection- (CME-) driven sheath regions that were observed in the near-Earth solar wind. Wind high-resolution magnetic field data were used to investigate 2 h regions adjacent to the shock and ejecta leading edge (Near-Shock and Near-LE regions, respectively), and the results were compared with a 2 h region upstream of the shock. The inertial-range spectral indices in the sheaths are found to be mostly steeper than the Kolmogorov −5/3 index and steeper than in the solar wind ahead. We did not find indications of an f−1 spectrum, implying that magnetic fluctuation properties in CME sheaths differ significantly from planetary magnetosheaths and that CME-driven shocks do not reset the solar wind turbulence, as appears to happen downstream of planetary bow shocks. However, our study suggests that new compressible fluctuations are generated in the sheath for a wide variety of shock/upstream conditions. Fluctuation properties particularly differed between the Near-Shock region and the solar wind ahead. A strong positive correlation in the mean magnetic compressibility was found between the upstream and downstream regions, but the compressibility values in the sheaths were similar to those in the slow solar wind (

In this paper we present the first identification of foreshock cavitons and the formation of spontaneous hot flow anomalies (SHFAs) with the Vlasiator global magnetospheric hybrid-Vlasov simulation code. In agreement with previous studies we show that cavitons evolve into SHFAs. In the presented run, this occurs very near the bow shock. We report on SHFAs surviving the shock crossing into the downstream region and show that the interaction of SHFAs with the bow shock can lead to the formation of a magnetosheath cavity, previously identified in observations and simulations. We report on the first identification of long-term local weakening and erosion of the bow shock, associated with a region of increased foreshock SHFA and caviton formation, and repeated shock crossings by them. We show that SHFAs are linked to an increase in suprathermal particle pitch-angle spreads. The realistic length scales in our simulation allow us to present a statistical study of global caviton and SHFA size distributions, and their comparable size distributions support the theory that SHFAs are formed from cavitons. Virtual spacecraft observations are shown to be in good agreement with observational studies.

We present a comprehensive statistical analysis of mirror mode waves and the properties of their plasma surroundings in sheath regions driven by interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME). We have constructed a semi-automated method to identify mirror modes from the magnetic field data. We analyze 91 ICME sheath regions from January 1997 to April 2015 using data from the Wind spacecraft. The results imply that similarly to planetary magnetosheaths, mirror modes are also common structures in ICME sheaths. However, they occur almost exclusively as dip-like structures and in mirror stable plasma. We observe mirror modes throughout the sheath, from the bow shock to the ICME leading edge, but their amplitudes are largest closest to the shock. We also find that the shock strength (measured by Alfvén Mach number) is the most important parameter in controlling the occurrence of mirror modes. Our findings suggest that in ICME sheaths the dominant source of free energy for mirror mode generation is the shock compression. We also suggest that mirror modes that are found deeper in the sheath are remnants from earlier times of the sheath evolution, generated also in the vicinity of the shock.

Planar magnetic structures (PMSs) are periods in the solar wind during which interplanetary magnetic field vectors are nearly parallel to a single plane. One of the specific regions where PMSs have been reported are coronal mass ejection (CME)-driven sheaths. We use here an automated method to identify PMSs in 95 CME sheath regions observed in situ by the Wind and ACE spacecraft between 1997 and 2015. The occurrence and location of the PMSs are related to various shock, sheath, and CME properties. We find that PMSs are ubiquitous in CME sheaths; 85 % of the studied sheath regions had PMSs with the mean duration of 6 h. In about one-third of the cases the magnetic field vectors followed a single PMS plane that covered a significant part (at least 67 %) of the sheath region. Our analysis gives strong support for two suggested PMS formation mechanisms: the amplification and alignment of solar wind discontinuities near the CME-driven shock and the draping of the magnetic field lines around the CME ejecta. For example, we found that the shock and PMS plane normals generally coincided for the events where the PMSs occurred near the shock (68 % of the PMS plane normals near the shock were separated by less than 20° from the shock normal), while deviations were clearly larger when PMSs occurred close to the ejecta leading edge. In addition, PMSs near the shock were generally associated with lower upstream plasma beta than the cases where PMSs occurred near the leading edge of the CME. We also demonstrate that the planar parts of the sheath contain a higher amount of strong southward magnetic field than the non-planar parts, suggesting that planar sheaths are more likely to drive magnetospheric activity.

Magnetic clouds (MCs) are large-scale magnetic flux ropes ejected from the Sun into the interplanetary space. They play a central role in solar–terrestrial relations as they can efficiently drive magnetic activity in the near-Earth environment. Their impact on the Earth's magnetosphere is often attributed to the presence of southward magnetic fields inside the MC, as observed in the upstream solar wind. However, when they arrive in the vicinity of the Earth, MCs first encounter the bow shock, which is expected to modify their properties, including their magnetic field strength and direction. If these changes are significant, they can in turn affect the interaction of the MC with the magnetosphere. In this paper, we use data from the Cluster and Geotail spacecraft inside the magnetosheath and from the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) upstream of the Earth's environment to investigate the impact of the bow shock's crossing on the magnetic structure of MCs. Through four example MCs, we show that the evolution of the MC's structure from the solar wind to the magnetosheath differs largely from one event to another. The smooth rotation of the MC can either be preserved inside the magnetosheath, be modified, i.e. the magnetic field still rotates slowly but at different angles, or even disappear. The alteration of the magnetic field orientation across the bow shock can vary with time during the MC's passage and with the location inside the magnetosheath. We examine the conditions encountered at the bow shock from direct observations, when Cluster or Geotail cross it, or indirectly by applying a magnetosheath model. We obtain a good agreement between the observed and modelled magnetic field direction and shock configuration, which varies from quasi-perpendicular to quasi-parallel in our study. We find that the variations in the angle between the magnetic fields in the solar wind and in the magnetosheath are anti-correlated with the variations in the shock obliquity. When the shock is in a quasi-parallel regime, the magnetic field direction varies significantly from the solar wind to the magnetosheath. In such cases, the magnetic field reaching the magnetopause cannot be approximated by the upstream magnetic field. Therefore, it is important to take into account the conditions at the bow shock when estimating the impact of an MC with the Earth's environment because these conditions are crucial in determining the magnetosheath magnetic field, which then interacts with the magnetosphere.

We present an analysis of double-step magnetic field enhancement caused by interplanetary (IP) shock impacts on the Earth's magnetosphere. The structures were observed by the GOES-8, 10, 11, and 12 spacecraft in the dayside geostationary orbit, particularly during northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions. The double-step structures, similar to what is observed in the ground horizontal magnetic field (H) component at low and mid latitudes, were observed preferentially on the dayside. Structures observed around 12–15 magnetic local time (MLT) displayed the steepest initial enhancement step, followed by a magnetic field strength decrease before the second enhancement step. At other dayside MLTs of the geostationary orbit, the initial response was smoother, and no decrease was observed before the second step. We suggest that this MLT asymmetry in the decrease of the total magnetic field is caused by the pushing of the plasmaspheric ions over the geostationary orbit due to the magnetospheric compression.

Magnetic clouds (MCs) are huge interplanetary structures which originate from the Sun and have a paramount importance in driving magnetospheric storms. Before reaching the magnetosphere, MCs interact with the Earth's bow shock. This may alter their structure and therefore modify their expected geoeffectivity. We develop a simple 3-D model of the magnetosheath adapted to MCs conditions. This model is the first to describe the interaction of MCs with the bow shock and their propagation inside the magnetosheath. We find that when the MC encounters the Earth centrally and with its axis perpendicular to the Sun–Earth line, the MC's magnetic structure remains mostly unchanged from the solar wind to the magnetosheath. In this case, the entire dayside magnetosheath is located downstream of a quasi-perpendicular bow shock. When the MC is encountered far from its centre, or when its axis has a large tilt towards the ecliptic plane, the MC's structure downstream of the bow shock differs significantly from that upstream. Moreover, the MC's structure also differs from one region of the magnetosheath to another and these differences vary with time and space as the MC passes by. In these cases, the bow shock configuration is mainly quasi-parallel. Strong magnetic field asymmetries arise in the magnetosheath; the sign of the magnetic field north–south component may change from the solar wind to some parts of the magnetosheath. We stress the importance of the Bx component. We estimate the regions where the magnetosheath and magnetospheric magnetic fields are anti-parallel at the magnetopause (i.e. favourable to reconnection). We find that the location of anti-parallel fields varies with time as the MCs move past Earth's environment, and that they may be situated near the subsolar region even for an initially northward magnetic field upstream of the bow shock. Our results point out the major role played by the bow shock configuration in modifying or keeping the structure of the MCs unchanged. Note that this model is not restricted to MCs, it can be used to describe the magnetosheath magnetic field under an arbitrary slowly varying interplanetary magnetic field.

Compressed sheath regions form ahead of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) that are sufficiently faster than the preceding solar wind. The turbulent sheath regions are important drivers of magnetospheric activity, but due to their complex internal structure, relatively little is known on the distribution of the magnetic field and plasma variations in them. In this paper we investigate ultra low frequency (ULF) fluctuations in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and in dynamic pressure (Pdyn) using a superposed epoch analysis of 41 sheath regions observed during solar cycle 23. We find strongest fluctuation power near the shock and in the vicinity of the ICME leading edge. The IMF and Pdyn ULF power have different profiles within the sheath; the former is enhanced in the leading part of the sheath, while the latter is increased in the trailing part of the sheath. We also find that the ICME properties affect the level and distribution of the ULF power in sheath regions. For example, sheath regions associated with strong or fast ICMEs, or those that are crossed at intermediate distances from the center, have strongest ULF power and large variation in the power throughout the sheath region. The weaker or slower ICMEs, or those that are crossed centrally, have in general considerably weaker ULF power with relatively smooth profiles. The strong and abrupt decrease of the IMF ULF power at the ICME leading edge could be used to distinguish the ICME from the preceding sheath plasma.

The relationship of magnetic clouds (MCs) to interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) is still an open issue in space research. The view that all ICMEs would originate as magnetic flux ropes has received increasing attention, although near the orbit of the Earth only about one-third of ICMEs show clear MC signatures and often the MC occupies only a portion of the more extended region showing ICME signatures. In this work we analyze 79 events between 1996 and 2009 reported in existing ICME/MC catalogs (Wind magnetic cloud list and the Richardson and Cane ICME list) using near-Earth observations by ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer) and Wind. We perform a systematic comparison of cases where ICME and MC signatures coincided and where ICME signatures extended significantly beyond the MC boundaries. We find clear differences in the characteristics of these two event types. In particular, the events where ICME signatures continued more than 6 h past the MC rear boundary had 2.7 times larger speed difference between the ICME's leading edge and the preceding solar wind, 1.4 times higher magnetic fields, 2.1 times larger widths and they experienced three times more often strong expansion than the events for which the rear boundaries coincided. The events with significant mismatch in MC and ICME boundary times were also embedded in a faster solar wind and the majority of them were observed close to the solar maximum. Our analysis shows that the sheath, the MC and the regions of ICME-related plasma in front and behind the MC have different magnetic field, plasma and charge state characteristics, thus suggesting that these regions separate already close to the Sun. Our study shows that the geometrical effect (the encounter through the CME leg and/or far from the flux rope center) does not contribute much to the observed mismatch in the MC and ICME boundary times.

Magnetic clouds (MCs) are very geoeffective solar wind structures. Their properties in the interplanetary medium have been extensively studied, yet little is known about their characteristics in the Earth's magnetosheath. The Cluster spacecraft offer the opportunity to observe MCs in the magnetosheath, but before MCs reach the magnetosphere, their structure is altered when they interact with the terrestrial bow shock (BS). The physics taking place at the BS strongly depends on ΘBn, the angle between the shock normal and the interplanetary magnetic field. However, in situ observations of the BS during an MC's crossing are seldom available. In order to relate magnetosheath observations to solar wind conditions, we need to rely on a model to determine the shock's position and normal direction. Yet during MCs, the models tend to be less accurate, because the Alfvén Mach number (MA) is often significantly lower than in regular solar wind. On the contrary, the models are generally optimised for high MA conditions. In this study, we compare the predictions of four widely used models available in the literature (Wu et al., 2000; Chapman and Cairns, 2003; Jeřáb et al., 2005; Měrka et al., 2005b) to Cluster's dayside BS crossings observed during five MC events. Our analysis shows that the ΘBn angle is well predicted by all four models. On the other hand, the Jeřáb et al. (2005) model yields the best estimates of the BS position during low MA MCs. The other models locate the BS either too far from or too close to Earth. The results of this paper can be directly used to estimate the BS parameters in all studies of MC interaction with Earth's magnetosphere.

In this paper we have analyzed a substructure found within a leading part of a north–south-oriented magnetic cloud (MC) observed on 3–4 September 2008 in the near-Earth solar wind by multiple spacecraft (ACE, Wind, THEMIS B and C). The MC was preceded by a stream interface (SI) and followed by a high-speed stream (HSS). The identified substructure featured a strong depletion of suprathermal halo electrons and showed distinct magnetic field and plasma signatures. It occurred where suprathermal electron flow within a cloud changed from bidirectional to unidirectional, indicating change in the field line connectivity to the Sun. We found that the substructure maintained roughly its integrity from the first Lagrangian point to the vicinity of the Earth's bow shock in the front edge of the MC, but revealed small changes in the structure which could be explained either by temporal evolution or spatial configuration of the spacecraft.

In this paper, we have investigated geoeffectivity of near-Earth magnetic clouds during two periods concentrated around the last two solar minima. The studied magnetic clouds were categorised according to the behaviour of the Z-component of the interplanetary magnetic field (BZ) into bipolar (BZ changes sign) and unipolar (BZ maintains its sign) clouds. The magnetic structure of bipolar clouds followed the solar cycle rule deduced from observations over three previous solar cycles, except during the early rising phase of cycle 24 when both BZ polarities were identified almost with the same frequency. We found a clear difference in the number of unipolar clouds whose axial field points south (S-type) between our two study periods. In particular, it seems that the lack of S-type unipolar clouds contributed to relatively low geomagnetic activity in the early rising phase of cycle 24. We estimated the level of magnetospheric activity using a Dst prediction formula with the measured BZ and by reversing the sign of BZ. We found that bipolar clouds with fields rotating south-to-north (SN) and north-to-south (NS) were equally geoeffective, but their geoeffectiveness was clearly modified by the ambient solar wind structure. Geoeffectivity of NS-polarity clouds was enhanced when they were followed by a higher-speed solar wind, while the majority of geoeffective SN-polarity clouds lacked the trailing faster wind. A leading shock increased the geoeffectiveness of both NS- and SN-polarity clouds, in particular, in the case of an intense storm. We found that in 1995–1998, SN-polarity clouds were more geoeffective, while in 2006–2011 NS-polarity clouds produced more storms. A considerably larger fraction of events were trailed by a higher-speed solar wind during our latter study period, which presumably increased geoeffectivity of NS-polarity. Thus, our study demonstrates that during low and moderate solar activity, geoeffectivity of opposite polarity bipolar clouds may depend significantly on the surrounding solar wind structure. In addition, different polarities also give different temporal storm evolutions: a storm from an SN-polarity cloud is expected to occur, on average, half-a-day earlier than a storm from an NS-polarity cloud.

In this paper we examine the occurrence rates and properties of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) and solar activity levels during the minima following solar cycle 22 (January 1995–December 1997) and 23 (January 2007–April 2010) minima using observations from the OMNI data base. Throughout the minimum following cycle 22 the CME and ICME rates roughly tracked each other, while for the minimum following cycle 23 they diverged. During the minimum after solar cycle 23, there were large variations in the streamer belt structure. During the lowest activity period of cycle 23 (based on sunspot numbers), the ICME rate was about four times higher than during a similar activity period of cycle 22. We propose that this relatively high ICME rate may be due to CME source regions occurring at lower heliolatitudes and due to equatoward deflection of slow and weak CMEs originating from the mid- and high-heliolatitudes. The maximum magnetic fields of the ICMEs identified during the minimum following cycle 23 were ~30 % lower and their radial widths were ~15 % lower compared to the ICMEs observed during the minimum following solar cycle 22. The weak and small ICMEs may result from intrinsically weak CMEs and/or they may represent stronger CMEs that are encountered far away from the center.

In this paper we study the occurrence rate and solar origin of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) using data from the two Solar TErrestrial RElation Observatory (STEREO) and the Wind spacecraft. We perform a statistical survey of ICMEs during the late declining phase of solar cycle 23. Observations by multiple, well-separated spacecraft show that even at the time of extremely weak solar activity a considerable number of ICMEs were present in the interplanetary medium. Soon after the beginning of the STEREO science mission in January 2007 the number of ICMEs declined to less than one ICME per month, but in late 2008 the ICME rate clearly increased at each spacecraft although no apparent increase in the number of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) occurred. We suggest that the near-ecliptic ICME rate can increase due to CMEs that have been guided towards the equator from their high-latitude source regions by the magnetic fields in the polar coronal holes. We consider two case studies to highlight the effects of the polar magnetic fields and CME deflection taking advantage of STEREO observations when the two spacecraft were in the quadrature configuration (i.e. separated by about 90 degrees). We study in detail the solar and interplanetary consequences of two CMEs that both originated from high-latitude source regions on 2 November 2008. The first CME was slow (radial speed 298 km/s) and associated with a huge polar crown prominence eruption. The CME was guided by polar coronal hole fields to the equator and it produced a clear flux rope ICME in the near-ecliptic solar wind. The second CME (radial speed 438 km/s) originated from an active region 11007 at latitude 35° N. This CME propagated clearly north of the first CME and no interplanetary consequences were identified. The two case studies suggest that slow and elongated CMEs have difficulties overcoming the straining effect of the overlying field and as a consequence they are guided by the polar coronal fields and cause in-situ effects close to the ecliptic plane. The 3-D propagation directions and CME widths obtained by using the forward modelling technique were consistent with the solar and in-situ observations.

STEREO has now completed the first two years of its mission, moving from close proximity to Earth in 2006/2007 to more than 50 degrees longitudinal separation from Earth in 2009. During this time, several large-scale structures have been observed in situ. Given the prevailing solar minimum conditions, these structures have been predominantly coronal hole-associated solar wind, slow solar wind, their interfaces, and the occasional transient event. In this paper, we extend earlier solar wind composition studies into the current solar minimum using high-resolution (1-h) sampling times for the charge state analysis. We examine 2-year trends for iron charge states and solar wind proton speeds, and present a case study of Carrington Rotation 2064 (December 2007) which includes minor ion (He, Fe, O) kinetic and Fe composition parameters in comparison with proton and magnetic field signatures at large-scale structures observed during this interval.

In this paper, we present evidence for magnetic transients with small radial extents ranging from 0.025 to 0.118 AU measured in situ by the Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and the near-Earth Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) and Wind spacecraft. The transients considered in this study are much smaller (<0.12 AU) than the typical sizes of magnetic clouds measured near 1 AU (~0.23 AU). They are marked by low plasma beta values, generally lower magnetic field variance, short timescale magnetic field rotations, and are all entrained by high-speed streams by the time they reach 1 AU. We use this entrainment to trace the origin of these small interplanetary transients in coronagraph images. We demonstrate that these magnetic field structures originate as either small or large mass ejecta. The small mass ejecta often appear from the tip of helmet streamers as arch-like structures and other poorly defined white-light features (the so-called blobs). However, we have found a case of a small magnetic transient tracing back to a small and narrow mass ejection erupting from below helmet streamers. Surprisingly, one of the small magnetic structures traces back to a large mass ejection; in this case, we show that the central axis of the coronal mass ejection is along a different latitude and longitude to that of the in situ spacecraft. The small size of the transient is related to the in situ measurements being taken on the edges or periphery of a larger magnetic structure. In the last part of the paper, an ejection with an arch-like aspect is tracked continuously to I AU in the STEREO images. The associated in situ signature is not that of a magnetic field rotation but rather of a temporary reversal of the magnetic field direction. Due to its "open-field topology," we speculate that this structure is partly formed near helmet streamers due to reconnection between closed and open magnetic field lines. The implications of these observations for our understanding of the variability of the slow solar wind are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the relation between strong and extreme geomagnetic storms and solar cycle characteristics. The analysis uses an extensive geomagnetic index AA data set spanning over 150 yr complemented by the Kakioka magnetometer recordings. We apply Pearson correlation statistics and estimate the significance of the correlation with a bootstrapping technique. We show that the correlation between the storm occurrence and the strength of the solar cycle decreases from a clear positive correlation with increasing storm magnitude toward a negligible relationship. Hence, the quieter Sun can also launch superstorms that may lead to significant societal and economic impact. Our results show that while weaker storms occur most frequently in the declining phase, the stronger storms have the tendency to occur near solar maximum. Our analysis suggests that the most extreme solar eruptions do not have a direct connection between the solar large-scale dynamo-generated magnetic field, but are rather associated with smaller-scale dynamo and resulting turbulent magnetic fields. The phase distributions of sunspots and storms becoming increasingly in phase with increasing storm strength, on the other hand, may indicate that the extreme storms are related to the toroidal component of the solar large-scale field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]