Coronal density and temperature gradients

✍ Scribed by R. Grant Athay

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1973
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 443 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00150813

✦ Synopsis

Mean density models of the solar corona show evidence for two distinctive density regimes characterized by different density gradients. High density gradients are identified with regions of predominantly open magnetic lines of force and low density gradients are identified with regions of predominantly closed magnetic lines of force. Spectroscopic data yielding equivalent widths of forbidden lines ofFe x and Fe xIv strongly suggest that the coronal temperature for r > 2.5 RG decreases considerably less rapidly in equatorial regions than r -z/7, which is the decrease predicted by conduction models with open field lines.