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Solar Wind Properties as a Function of Bright Points Characteristics

 

About ten years ago, Skylab and corresponding solar wind data showed a correlation between the number of coronal hole bright points (XBP) and solar wind densities. This correlation seems to support the suggestion that XBP/plume combinations are the source of the mass injection into the solar wind. If this is the case, we may have a clue helping us solve the solar wind mass flux problem. A way of assessing the hypothesized correlation requires observing a coronal hole during successive rotations. As it has been shown that the number of bright points per unit area increase as a coronal hole evolves, we should expect a higher solar wind density in successive rotations. SOHO offers a new and unique opportunity with respect to Skylab era data, i. e., the ability to do remote observations of bright points while measuring the solar wind speed at small heliocentric distances. This analysis can be extended to take into account other small scale activity features, such as macrospicules, UV explosive events and so on. Our goal is to prove/disprove the possibility that these events are responsible for the mass flux supply to the solar wind and -possibly- for the solar wind momentum.

The study of the correlation between XBPs and polar plumes requires coordinated observations between UVCS and the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) on Yohkoh. For the low latitude regions of coronal holes, an especially important coordinated observation can be made with CELIAS to determine whether any mass injected by XBP/plume combinations shows abundance or ionization state anomalies.

Solar Wind Properties as a Function of Bright Points Characteristics



Peter Smith
Fri Jan 17 12:11:15 EST 1997