Full-Sun observations for identifying the source of the slow solar wind

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 5947
• Main Authors: Brooks, David H., Ugarte-Urra, Ignacio, Warren, Harry P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 06-01-2015; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Pub. Group
• Subjects: 639/33/525/870; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Plasma; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Solar physics; Sun; Velocity; Wind; United States > US
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6947

Fast (>700 km s
−1
) and slow (~400 km s
−1
) winds stream from the Sun, permeate the heliosphere and influence the near-Earth environment. While the fast wind is known to emanate primarily from polar coronal holes, the source of the slow wind remains unknown. Here we identify possible sites of origin using a slow solar wind source map of the entire Sun, which we construct from specially designed, full-disk observations from the Hinode satellite, and a magnetic field model. Our map provides a full-Sun observation that combines three key ingredients for identifying the sources: velocity, plasma composition and magnetic topology and shows them as solar wind composition plasma outflowing on open magnetic field lines. The area coverage of the identified sources is large enough that the sum of their mass contributions can explain a significant fraction of the mass loss rate of the solar wind.
Both fast and slow solar winds emanate from our Sun, although the source of the slow component remains elusive. Towards identifying this, Brooks
et al
. present full-Sun spectral images from Hinode, combined with magnetic modelling, to produce a solar wind source map.