‰ NOW 20 WPM ‰ TEXT IS FROM MARCH 2014 QST PAGE 91 ‰ SUNSPOT NUMBER DID NOT QUITE TRANSLATE INTO THE CME RATE ITSELF. THE CME OCCURRENCE RATE IN CYCLES 24 AND 23 ARE COMPARABLE IN THE MAXIMUM PHASE. THEN HOW DO WE UNDERSTAND THE MILD SPACE WEATHER IN CYCLE 24? A CLUE TO THE REASON FOR MILDER SPACE WEATHER CAME FROM THE FACT THAT ALL CMES THAT PRODUCED PARTICLE EVENTS ARE HALO CMES IN CYCLE 24, COMPARED TO ABOUT 70 IN CYCLE 23. HALO CMES ORIGINATE FROM CLOSE TO THE DISK CENTER AND EXPAND RAPIDLY, GIVING THE APPEARANCE OF SURROUNDING THE SUN. THERE MUST BE SOMETHING DIFFERENT ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE CMES IN SOLAR CYCLE 24. GOPALSWAMY AND CO WORKERS EXAMINED THE RELATION BETWEEN CME WIDTH AND SPEED AND FOUND THAT THE CYCLE 24 CMES ARE WIDER THAN THE CYCLE 23 ONES FOR A GIVEN SPEED. FOR ENERGETIC CMES SPEED EXCEEDING 1000 KM/S, THE WIDTH IS ‰ END OF 20 WPM TEXT ‰ QST DE W1AW ƒ