The smallest source region of an interplanetary magnetic cloud: A mini-sigmoid Original Research Article

We provide evidence for the smallest sigmoid eruption – CME – interplanetary magnetic cloud event ever observed by combining multi-wavelength remote sensing and in situ observations, as well as computing the coronal and interplanetary magnetic fields. The tiny bipole had 100 times less flux than an average active region (AR). It had a sigmoidal structure in the corona and we detected a very high level of twist in its magnetic field. On 11 May 1998, at about 8 UT, the sigmoid underwent eruption evidenced by expanding elongated EUV loops, dimmings and formation of a cusp. The Wind spacecraft, 4.5 days later, detected one of the smallest magnetic clouds (MC) ever identified (100 times less magnetic flux than an average MC). The link between the EUV bright point eruption and the interplanetary MC is supported by several pieces of evidence: timing, same coronal loop and MC orientation relative to the ecliptic, same magnetic field direction and magnetic helicity sign in the coronal loops and in the MC, comparable magnetic flux measured in the dimming regions and in the interplanetary MC and, most importantly, the pre- to post-event change of magnetic helicity in the solar corona is found to be comparable to the helicity content of the cloud.