Transient interplanetary structures - some keys for Sun-Earth coupling

DASSO S.

Workshop; ISSI-BJ Forum the Next Scientific Program of SCOSTEP; 2018

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are launched from the Sun, as a result of magnetic instabilities,carrying away a huge amount of magnetic flux and helicity. Interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs) aretheir manifestations observed further away in the heliosphere. ICMEs contain different plasmaand magnetic field properties, compared with those of the ambient solar wind. From the largenumber of observed ICMEs in the past years, we significantly increased our knowledge on severalof their properties such as: their global 3D shape, the identification of the composingsub-structures, the amount of magnetohydrodynamical quantities transported, as well as howthe plasma and magnetic field are typically distributed inside them. In the present talk wewill present a general review of these aspects of ICMEs. In particular we will focus on thetotal amount of magnetic flux and helicity ejected by CMEs from the Sun along a solar cycle,and on plasma and magnetic properties of their shock/sheath/flux-rope/wake. These resultscan help to understand their interaction with the ambient solar wind and with planetary magneticenvironments. They are particularly crucial for a better understanding of the Sun-Earthcoupling.