High-speed streams in the solar wind during the last solar minimum

Abstract

The paper presents a statistical analysis of the fast solar wind streams during the last prolonged minimum. Defining a minimum phase as the period with the monthly relative sunspot numbers (smoothed values) having a value of less than 20, we considered for this analysis the interval February 2006 September 2010. The High-Speed Streams (HSSs) in the solar wind were determined by their main parameters: duration, maximum velocity, velocity gradient. A comparative analysis of the HSS dynamics during the last solar minimum with the previous solar minimum (1996-1997) concludes the paper. © 2012 International Astronomical Union.