Properties of Solar Eruptive Events Important for Space Weather Consequences: Solar Cycle Considerations

Janet Luhmann

Abstract

The current approach to solar maximum has demonstrated that the Sun can be very active, and yet produce only modest geomagnetic responses. When space weather is the object of interest, considerations of solar activity take on a special twist. The ways in which "geoeffectiveness" is controlled by items as diverse as the ambient solar wind stream structure, and the solar magnetic polarity are briefly reviewed, insofar as they are understood. Ways in which space weather forecasts can take this knowledge into account are considered, as are the pitfalls of assuming that an eruptive event on the visible disk will produce a significant magnetic storm.

Organization: Space Sciences Lab, UC Berkeley
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e-mail: jgluhman@ssl.berkeley.edu

Address: Space Sciences Laboratory
University of California
Berkeley CA 94720