The role of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections in Space Weather

DASSO, S.; MASÍAS-MEZA, J.J.; JANVIER, M.; DEMOULIN, P.

Conferencia; X Latin American Conference on Space GeoPhysics (X COLAGE); 2014

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); widows: 2; orphans: 2; } Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections (ICMEs) are meso-scale transient objects in the heliosphere, ejected by the Sun from the destabilisation of a portion of coronal magnetic field. The changes in the plasma conditions leaded by an ICME near Earth, typically generate strong variations of the input of energy, momentum, and particles, from the interplanetary medium to the terrestrial environment. Faster ICMEs generally drive Interplanetary shocks, which affect the transport of solar energetic particles in the heliosphere and can produce acceleration of particles producing new energetic particles with effects on Space Weather. Then, the presence of ICMEs is typically associated with a transient variation of energetic particles fluxes impacting Earth (Solar Energetic Particles, Forbush decreases, etc.). All these combined effects imply that ICMEs can significantly enhance the Sun-Earth coupling. The study of ICMEs has greatly advanced in the last few years, thanks to multi-spacecraft observations of the solar corona and the solar wind, combined with high performance numerical modeling. The comparisons between models and recent observations now answer several open questions, such as the typical configuration (internal and global) of ICMEs, as well as how they are affected due to their interaction with the ambient solar wind during their propagation in the interplanetary medium. Recent advances in the field of ICMEs will be provided in this talk, including their effects on Space Weather and the level of Sun-Earth coupling.