Highlights of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections and its impact on the terrestrial environment (invited talk)

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

Moscow

Congreso; 40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly; 2014

COSPAR

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. They imply large modifications of the heliospheric plasma and magnetic field properties. Then, an ICME passing nearby Earth generates strong variations of the input of energy, momentum and particles, from the interplanetary medium to the terrestrial environment. 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 modelling. 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. This talk will provide a summary of recent advances in the field of ICMEs, and will present several aspects of the interaction with the ambient solar wind that have serious consequences on the level of Sun-Earth coupling.