Cyclic Reversal of Magnetic Cloud Poloidal Field

Abstract

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) carry magnetic structure from the low corona into the heliosphere. The interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs) that exhibit the topology of helical magnetic fluxropes are traditionally called magnetic clouds (MCs). MC fluxropes with axis of low (high) inclination with respect to the ecliptic plane have been referred to as bipolar (unipolar) MCs. The poloidal field of bipolar MCs has a solar cycle dependence. We report a cyclic reversal of the poloidal field of low inclination MC fluxropes during 1976 to 2009. The MC poloidal field cyclic reversal on the same time scale of the solar magnetic cycle is evident over three sunspot cycles. Approximately 48% of ICMEs are MCs, and 40% of IMCs are bipolar MCs during solar cycle 23. The speed of the bipolar MCs has essentially the same distribution as all ICMEs, which implies that they are not from any special type of CMEs in terms of the solar origin. Although CME fluxropes may undergo a number of complications during the eruption and propagation, a significant group of MCs retains sufficient similarity to the source region magnetic field to posses the same cyclic periodicity in polarity reversal. The poloidal field of bipolar MCs gives the out-of-ecliptic-plane field or Bz component in the IMF time series. MCs with southward Bz field are particularly effective in causing geomagnetic disturbances. During the solar minima, the Bz field IMF sequence within MCs at the leading portion of a bipolar MC is the same with the solar global dipole field. Our finding shows that MCs preferentially remove the like polarity of the solar dipole field, and it supports the participation of CMEs in the solar magnetic cycle. © 2011 The Author(s).