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The floor in the solar wind: status report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2012

E. W. Cliver
E. W. Cliver*
Affiliation:
Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory Sunspot, NM, USA email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Cliver & Ling (2010) recently suggested that the solar wind had a floor or ground-state magnetic field strength at Earth of ~2.8 nT and that the source of the field was the slow solar wind. This picture has recently been given impetus by the evidence presented by Schrijver et al. (2011) that the Sun has a minimal magnetic state that was approached globally in 2009, a year in which Earth was imbedded in slow solar wind ~70% of the time. A precursor relation between the solar dipole field strength at solar minimum and the peak sunspot number (SSNMAX) of the subsequent 11-yr cycle suggests that during Maunder-type minima (when SSNMAX was ~0), the solar polar field strength approaches zero - indicating weak or absent polar coronal holes and an increase to nearly ~100% in the time that Earth spends in slow solar wind.

Keywords

Sunmagnetic fieldssolar wind
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 7 , Symposium S286: Comparative Magnetic Minima: Characterizing quiet times in the Sun and Stars , October 2011 , pp. 179 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2012

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