The distribution function of the average iron charge state at 1 AU: from a bimodal wind to ICME identification

Authors
Larrodera Baca, CarlosUniversity of Alcalá Author; Cid Tortuero, ConsueloUniversity of Alcalá Author
Identifiers
Permanent link (URI): http://hdl.handle.net/10017/46883
DOI: 10.1007/s11207-020-01727-8
ISSN: 0038-0938
Publisher
Springer
Date
2020-11-10
Affiliation
Universidad de Alcalá. Departamento de Física y Matemáticas. Unidad docente Física
Funders
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
Bibliographic citation
Larrodera, C. & Cid, C. 2020, “The distribution function of the average iron charge state at 1 AU: from a bimodal wind to ICME identification”, Solar Physics, vol. 295, 156 (2020).
Keywords
Sun
Heliosphere
Solar wind
Project
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MINECO//AYA2016-80881-P
Document type
info:eu-repo/semantics/preprint
Version
info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersion
Publisher's version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-020-01727-8
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
© Springer Nature 2020
Access rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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Abstract
We aim to investigate the distribution function of the iron charge state, at 1 AU to check if it corresponds to a bimodal wind. We use data from the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) instrument on board the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) along 20 years. We propose the bi-Gaussian function as the probability distribution function that fits the average iron charge state, ⟨QFe⟩, distribution. We study the evolution of the parameters of the bimodal distribution with the solar cycle. We compare the outliers of the sample with the existing catalogs of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) and identify new ICMEs. The ⟨QFe⟩ at 1 AU shows a bimodal distribution related to the solar cycle. Our results confirm that ⟨QFe⟩>12 is a trustworthy proxy for ICME identification and a reliable signature in the ICME boundary definition.
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