NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Coronal Plumes in the Fast Solar WindThe expansion of a coronal hole filled with a discrete number of higher density coronal plumes is simulated using a time-dependent two-dimensional code. A solar wind model including an exponential coronal heating function and a flux of Alfven waves propagating both inside and outside the structures is taken as a basic state. Different plasma plume profiles are obtained by using different scale heights for the heating rates. Remote sensing and solar wind in situ observations are used to constrain the parameter range of the study. Time dependence due to plume ignition and disappearance is also discussed. Velocity differences of the order of approximately 50 km/s, such as those found in microstreams in the high-speed solar wind, may be easily explained by slightly different heat deposition profiles in different plumes. Statistical pressure balance in the fast wind data may be masked by the large variety of body and surface waves which the higher density filaments may carry, so the absence of pressure balance in the microstreams should not rule out their interpretation as the extension of coronal plumes into interplanetary space. Mixing of plume-interplume material via the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability seems to be possible within the parameter ranges of the models defined here, only at large di stances from the Sun, beyond 0.2-0.3 AU. Plasma and composition measurements in the inner heliosphere, such as those which will become available with Solar Orbiter and Solar Probe Plus, should therefore definitely be able to identify plume remnants in the solar wind.
Document ID
20110016220
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Velli, Marco
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Lionello, Roberto
(Predictive Science, Inc. San Diego, CA, United States)
Linker, Jon A.
(Predictive Science, Inc. San Diego, CA, United States)
Mikic, Zoran
(Predictive Science, Inc. San Diego, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
July 1, 2011
Publication Information
Publication: The Astrophysical Journal
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Volume: 736
Issue: 1
Subject Category
Solar Physics
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG09EJ95C
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available