Solar cycle variation of real CME latitudes

With the assumption of radial motion and uniform longitudinal distribution of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), we propose a method to eliminate projection effects from the apparent observed CME latitude distribution. This method has been applied to SOHO LASCO data from 1996 January to 2006 December. As a result, we find that the real CME latitude distribution had the following characteristics: (1) High-latitude CMEs (θ > 60°, where θis the latitude) constituted 3% of all CMEs and mainly occurred during the time when the polar magnetic fields reversed sign. The latitudinal drift of the high-latitude CMEs was correlated with that of the heliospheric current sheet. (2) Four percent of all CMEs occurred in the range 45° ≤ θ ≤ 60°. These midlatitude CMEs occurred primarily in 2000, near the middle of 2002, and in 2005, forming a prominent three-peak structure. (3) The highest occurrence probability of low-latitude (θ < 45°) CMEs was at the minimum and during the declining phase of the solar cycle. However, the highest occurrence rate of low-latitude CMEs was at the maximum and during the declining phase of the solar cycle. The latitudinal evolution of low-latitude CMEs did not follow the Spörer sunspot law, which suggests that many CMEs originated outside of active regions.