Solar Cycle Variation of the Mass-loss Rate of Coronal Mass Ejections

Abstract

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are known as the main drivers of the most severe space weather disturbances. Usually, the most severe geomagnetic storms are caused by massive and fast CMEs. The latitudinal dependence of the mass loss of CMEs for different types (regular and specific events) and in different solar cycles is rarely studied. Based on the latest data acquired by the Coordinated Data Analysis Workshop catalog covering solar cycles 23 and 24, we investigated the solar cycle variation of their mass-loss rate in detail. The main results are shown as follows: (1) The temporal distribution of the mass-loss rate is noticeably different from the occurrence rate of CMEs, and this difference might be attributed to the different types. The mass-loss rate of regular CMEs significantly follows the pattern of the solar cycle. (2) The latitudinal evolutions of the mass-loss rate of regular CMEs are indeed different from those of specific CMEs during solar cycles 23 and 24, suggesting that the source region and configuration of regular and specific CMEs differ from each other. (3) Rieger-type periodicity and the quasi-biennial oscillations are found in the long-term evolution of the CME mass-loss rate, but they exhibit different temporal aspects in different subsamples of CMEs. Our results might provide new insight into the solar-cycle dependence of the mass-loss rate of CMEs at different latitudes, and have potential implications for our understanding of the long-term evolution of the mass-loss process on solar-type stars.

Keywords

• Solar coronal mass ejections
• Solar-terrestrial interactions
• Solar activity
• Solar cycle