Long-term variations of geomagnetic activity and their solar sources

Abstract

Geomagnetic activity in each phase of the solar cycle consists of 3 parts: (1) a floor below which the geomagnetic activity cannot fall even in the absence of sunspots, related to moderate graduate commencement storms; (2) sunspot-related activity due to sudden commencement storms caused by coronal mass ejections; (3) graduate commencement storms due to high speed solar wind from solar coronal holes. We find that the changes in the floor depend on the global magnetic moment of the Sun, and on the other side, from the height of the floor we can judge about the amplitude of the sunspot cycle.