Relationship between the low-latitude coronal hole area, solar wind velocity, and geomagnetic activity during solar cycles 23 and 24

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In order to statistically investigate the relationship between the low-latitude coronal holes (CHs), the solar wind speed, and the geomagnetic activity in solar cycles 23 (1996–2008) and 24 (2009–2016), we conducted a superposed epoch analysis of the variations in CH area, solar winds, the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), and geomagnetic indices (AL, AU, and SYM-H) for the period from 1996 to 2016. We further divided the temporal variations of the IMF into four types and then investigated the variations in solar winds, the IMF, and the geomagnetic indices before and after the corotating interaction region (CIR) reached Earth’s magnetosphere in each case. As a result, we observed a north–south asymmetry in the CH area, which shows that the CH area was much larger in the southern hemisphere than in the northern hemisphere during solar cycles 23 and 24. In addition, the CH area for solar cycle 24 tended to appear in a wider latitude region compared with that for solar cycle 23. The maximum values of the CH area and the solar wind speed in solar cycle 24 tended to be smaller than those in solar cycle 23. The relationship between these maximum values showed a positive correlation for both solar cycles. The distribution was larger for solar cycle 23 than for solar cycle 24. The variations in solar wind speed and the geomagnetic indices (AE and SYM-H) associated with CIRs in solar cycle 24 tended to be smaller than those in solar cycle 23. We conclude that the geomagnetic activity for solar cycle 24 associated with CIRs was slightly lower compared with that for solar cycle 23. This decrease in geomagnetic activity was due to a decrease in the dawn-to-dusk solar wind electric field intensity, which is obtained as the product of the solar wind speed and the north–south component of the solar wind magnetic field.