Pioneer-10 observation of the solar wind proton temperature heliocentric gradient

✍ Scribed by J. D. Mihalov; J. H. Wolfe

• Book ID: 104647129
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1978
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 463 KB
• Volume: 60
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00156539

✦ Synopsis

Solar wind isotropic proton temperatures as measured out to 12.2 AU heliocentric distance by the Ames plasma analyzer aboard Pioneer-10 are presented as consecutive averages over three Carrington solar rotations and discussed. The weighted least-squares fit of average temperature to heliocentric radial distance, R, yields the power law R-~ These average proton temperatures are not correlated as well with Pioneer-10's heliocentric radial distance (-0.85) as are the corresponding average ZiJrich sunspot numbers/~z (-0.95). Consequently, it is difficult to isolate the spatial gradient in the Pioneer-10 solar wind proton temperatures using that data alone.