Open AccessLow heliosphere pressure drives wider CMEs in weaker solar cycles
Author(s) -
Wendel JoAnna
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1002/2014eo300015
Subject(s) - physics , coronal mass ejection , sunspot , corona (planetary geology) , solar cycle , solar cycle 22 , heliosphere , solar wind , astrophysics , sunspot number , atmospheric sciences , solar maximum , meteorology , plasma , astrobiology , magnetic field , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , venus
Every 11 years, the Sun cycles from a period where sunspot counts are high to one where counts are low. Individual cycles, however, are not created equal—the current solar cycle, 24, has been called the weakest (with the fewest sunspot counts) in 100 years. The weakness of the solar cycle could be the reason the massive ejections of charged plasma from the Sun's corona have been anomalously wider and thus more diffuse than in preceding cycles.