On the magnetic field evolution of interplanetary coronal mass ejections from 0.07 to 5.4 au

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Möstl, Christian, Davies, Emma E., Weiler, Eva, Amerstorfer, Ute V., Weiss, Andreas J., Rüdisser, Hannah T., Reiss, Martin A., Majumdar, Satabdwa, Horbury, Timothy S., Bale, Stuart D., Heyner, Daniel
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Möstl, Christian
Davies, Emma E.
Weiler, Eva
Amerstorfer, Ute V.
Weiss, Andreas J.
Rüdisser, Hannah T.
Reiss, Martin A.
Majumdar, Satabdwa
Horbury, Timothy S.
Bale, Stuart D.
Heyner, Daniel
author_facet Möstl, Christian
Davies, Emma E.
Weiler, Eva
Amerstorfer, Ute V.
Weiss, Andreas J.
Rüdisser, Hannah T.
Reiss, Martin A.
Majumdar, Satabdwa
Horbury, Timothy S.
Bale, Stuart D.
Heyner, Daniel
contents A central question for understanding interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) physics and improving space weather forecasting is how ICMEs evolve in interplanetary space. We have updated one of the most comprehensive in situ ICME catalogs to date, which now includes 1976 events from 11 space missions covering over 34 years, from December 1990 to August 2025. We have combined existing catalogs including magnetic obstacles and identified and added boundaries of an additional 807 (40.8%) events ourselves. With this catalog, we demonstrate the most extensive analysis to date of total ICME magnetic field values as a function of heliocentric distance. Parker Solar Probe has observed 6 ICMEs at $< 0.23$ au (until April 2025), and Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo have added more events near 0.3 au, bridging the major observational gap towards the solar corona. Our main result is that a single power law can describe the evolution of the mean total magnetic field (exponent value of $k=-1.57$) and maximum field ($k=-1.53$) for ICMEs with magnetic obstacles (MOs), from 0.07 to 5.4 au. Extending the power law to the solar photosphere reveals a strong inconsistency with magnetic field magnitudes observed in the quiet Sun and active regions by 2 and 4 orders of magnitude, respectively. We introduce a multipole-type power law with two exponents, $k_1=-1.57$, and $k_2=-6$, relating the ICME magnetic field magnitude to an average solar active region field strength. These results present important observational constraints for the evolution of ICMEs from the Sun to the heliosphere.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_04730
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the magnetic field evolution of interplanetary coronal mass ejections from 0.07 to 5.4 au
Möstl, Christian
Davies, Emma E.
Weiler, Eva
Amerstorfer, Ute V.
Weiss, Andreas J.
Rüdisser, Hannah T.
Reiss, Martin A.
Majumdar, Satabdwa
Horbury, Timothy S.
Bale, Stuart D.
Heyner, Daniel
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Space Physics
A central question for understanding interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) physics and improving space weather forecasting is how ICMEs evolve in interplanetary space. We have updated one of the most comprehensive in situ ICME catalogs to date, which now includes 1976 events from 11 space missions covering over 34 years, from December 1990 to August 2025. We have combined existing catalogs including magnetic obstacles and identified and added boundaries of an additional 807 (40.8%) events ourselves. With this catalog, we demonstrate the most extensive analysis to date of total ICME magnetic field values as a function of heliocentric distance. Parker Solar Probe has observed 6 ICMEs at $< 0.23$ au (until April 2025), and Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo have added more events near 0.3 au, bridging the major observational gap towards the solar corona. Our main result is that a single power law can describe the evolution of the mean total magnetic field (exponent value of $k=-1.57$) and maximum field ($k=-1.53$) for ICMEs with magnetic obstacles (MOs), from 0.07 to 5.4 au. Extending the power law to the solar photosphere reveals a strong inconsistency with magnetic field magnitudes observed in the quiet Sun and active regions by 2 and 4 orders of magnitude, respectively. We introduce a multipole-type power law with two exponents, $k_1=-1.57$, and $k_2=-6$, relating the ICME magnetic field magnitude to an average solar active region field strength. These results present important observational constraints for the evolution of ICMEs from the Sun to the heliosphere.
title On the magnetic field evolution of interplanetary coronal mass ejections from 0.07 to 5.4 au
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Space Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.04730