03.11.2014 - 10:35 [ IOP Science ]

WEAKEST SOLAR WIND OF THE SPACE AGE AND THE CURRENT „MINI“ SOLAR MAXIMUM

(13. November 2013) The solar wind fluid properties and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) have declined through the prolonged solar minimum and continued to be low through the current mini solar maximum. Compared to values typically observed from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s, the following proton parameters are lower on average from 2009 through day 79 of 2013: solar wind speed and beta (~11%), temperature (~40%), thermal pressure (~55%), mass flux (~34%), momentum flux or dynamic pressure (~41%), energy flux (~48%), IMF magnitude (~31%), and radial component of the IMF (~38%). These results have important implications for the solar wind‘s interaction with planetary magnetospheres and the heliosphere‘s interaction with the local interstellar medium, with the proton dynamic pressure remaining near the lowest values observed in the space age