Remote Sensing Observations of the Solar Wind Near the Sun.

Details Remote Sensing Observations of the Solar Wind Near the Sun. Remote Sensing Observations of the Solar Wind Near the Sun.

Jan 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995phdt........22g&link_type=abstract

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO, 1995.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-01, Section:

Physics

2

Scientific paper

The solar wind is a fully ionized plasma which flows radially away from the Sun carrying with it interplanetary disturbances. These disturbances can result in phenomena such as geomagnetic storms at the Earth. Spacecraft observations of this plasma have not yet penetrated inside of 70R _odot (solar radii) and, except for the recent ULYSSES mission, have been confined to low ecliptic latitudes. Spacecraft also provide only a single point measurement thus giving limited information on the 3-dimensional structure. The inner solar wind, i.e., the solar corona, has been observed out to a few solar radii during solar eclipses and using occulting coronagraph instruments. However, much of the interesting solar wind physics occurs at higher latitudes and nearer the Sun; regions which may only be probed by radio scattering methods. This thesis presents the results of several wave scattering experiments to study the fluctuations in electron density and the velocity of the solar wind. We have found that the density microstructure is highly anisotropic (4 < AR < 15) near the Sun and appears to be aligned with the interplanetary magnetic field. The transition to smaller anisotropy (1 < AR < 3) appears to occur at a sharp boundary near 6R_odot. The density variance, delta N_sp{e }{2}, is seen to be a factor of 10 -15 lower in polar coronal holes (where fast solar wind develops) compared to the ecliptic regions. This weighting factor has important implications when analyzing data such as the velocity observations where a significant fraction of the line of sight passes through both fast and slow solar wind. This line of sight integration can be partially deconvolved using higher frequency receivers and antennas separated by several hundred kilometers. We have used this long baseline technique and the fact that the solar wind appears to be either 'fast' or 'slow' to separate the two velocity components. Resulting estimates of the acceleration profile in the fast polar solar wind indicate that the flow may be fully developed by { ~}10R_odot. This is in contrast to most presently published acceleration models.

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