The coronal source of the slow solar wind

✍ Scribed by Henrik Lundstedt

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 369 KB
• Volume: 123
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00150019

✦ Synopsis

Periods of very low solar wind velocity at 1 AU, during the interval from 1977 to 1983, are identified and mapped back to the coronal source surface at 2.5 R o. In total 25 such low-velocity events were found. Inferred source locations were characterized with respect to their position relative to the coronal neutral line. The study showed that in 17 out of 25 cases the slow solar wind originated across a coronal neutral line. In the remaining cases the source was either along the neutral line or insides a warp. A prediction of the IMF polarity to be expected at Earth, from the computed coronal magnetic field, was also done. It failed clearly only in four cases out of 25 events. In three cases the prediction was uncertain because of missing data. Possible explanations of why the potential model sometimes predicts a wrong polarity are discussed.