Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2010-11-12
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
25 pages, accepted to appear in the Astrophysical Journal. Supporting movies can be found in http://download.hao.ucar.edu/pub/
Scientific paper
We analyze a large, complex equatorial coronal hole (ECH) and its immediate surroundings with a focus on the roots of the fast solar wind. We start by demonstrating that our ECH is indeed a source of the fast solar wind at 1AU by examining in situ plasma measurements in conjunction with recently developed measures of magnetic conditions of the photosphere, inner heliosphere and the mapping of the solar wind source region. We focus the bulk of our analysis on interpreting the thermal and spatial dependence of the non-thermal line widths in the ECH as measured by SOHO/SUMER by placing the measurements in context with recent studies of ubiquitous Alfven waves in the solar atmosphere and line profile asymmetries (indicative of episodic heating and mass loading of the coronal plasma) that originate in the strong, unipolar magnetic flux concentrations that comprise the supergranular network. The results presented in this paper are consistent with a picture where a significant portion of the energy responsible for the transport of heated mass into the fast solar wind is provided by episodically occurring small-scale events (likely driven by magnetic reconnection) in the upper chromosphere and transition region of the strong magnetic flux regions that comprise the supergranular network.
de Pontieu Bart
Leamon Robert J.
McIntosh Scott W.
No associations
LandOfFree
The Spectroscopic Footprint of the Fast Solar Wind does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with The Spectroscopic Footprint of the Fast Solar Wind, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Spectroscopic Footprint of the Fast Solar Wind will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-444989