The effect of solar activity on the evolution of solar wind parameters during the rise of the 24th cycle

Abstract

The dynamics of parameters of the near-Earth solar wind (SW) and the effect of solar activity on the parameters of three SW components (fast SW from large-scale coronal holes (CHs); slow SW from active regions, streamers, and other sources; and transient flows related to sporadic solar activity) at the beginning of the 24th solar cycle (2009–2011) are analyzed. It is demonstrated that temperaturedependent parameters of ionic composition (C+6/C+5 and O+7/O+6) of the transient SW component in the profound minimum of solar activity in 2009 were correlated with the variation of the rate of weak (type C and weaker) flares. This verifies the presence of a hot component associated with these flares in the SW. The variations in the velocity and the kinetic temperature of fast SW from CHs with an increase in activity are more pronounced in the bulk of the high-speed stream, and the variations of O+7/O+6 and Fe/O ratios and the magnitude of the interplanetary magnetic field are the most prominent in the region of interaction between fast and slow SW streams. The analysis reveals that a value of O+7/O+6 = 0.1 serves as the criterion to distinguish between fast SW streams and interplanetary coronal mass ejections in the 2009 activity minimum. This value is lower than the one (0.145) determined earlier based on the data on the 23rd cycle (Zhao et al., 2009). Therefore, the distinguishing criterion is not an absolute one and depends on the solar activity level.