Sheath characteristics of interplanetary coronal mass ejections derived from Helios and PSP data

Abstract

<p>Helios 1 and 2 data, covering the distance range from 0.3-1au, have been analysed to derive the characteristics of various substructures of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). We have investigated a data sample of 40 events observed by the Helios 1/2 spacecraft during the time period 1974-1981 with respect to the characteristics of different ICME features, such as sheath regions, leading edges and the magnetic ejecta (ME) themselves. For comparison and to investigate events at distances even closer to the Sun, we add a sample of 5 ICMEs observed with Parker Solar Probe during 2018-2021. We study the sheath density variations over distance and relate those to the ambient solar wind speed. The results show that the sheath region is moderately anti-correlated with the solar wind speed ahead of the disturbance. We further find that the sheath density becomes dominant over the ME density beyond about 0.2au and that its spatial extent constantly increases with distance. The results are important for better understanding the CME mass evolution due to sheath enlargements. Based on these analyses we derive an empirical relation between the sheath density and the local solar wind plasma speed upstream of the ICME shock. The empirical results can be used to model the sheath structure and help improve our understanding about CME propagation in the inner heliosphere.</p>