Characterizing the Whole Heliosphere at Solar Minimum: What we’ve Learnt from Data and Models

Over the past 60 years, our understanding of the heliospheric environment has increased substantially. This has been particularly true for conditions surrounding solar minimum, which are generally devoid of transient activity, and, in particular, coronal mass ejections. Our increased knowledge has been driven in large part by improvements in observations (both remote and in situ) as well as numerical models. In this talk, I review our state of knowledge of the global (inner) heliosphere at, and surrounding solar minimum, focusing on the fundamental properties that tie one minimum to the next as well as some of the more unusual deviations that have been seen during the most recent minima. Additionally, I will discuss how different planetary space environments respond to the quiescent Sun. I will conclude with a list of scientific questions that remain, as yet, unresolved.