Magnetic fields and flows between 1 and 0.3 AU during the primary mission of Helios 1

Abstract

Helios 1 moved from 1 AU on December 10, 1974, to 0.31 AU on March 15, 1975, and the sun rotated beneath the spacecraft nearly 4 times during the interval. Recurrent high‐speed streams with uniform magnetic polarity were observed, and they were associated with coronal holes of the same polarity. Although they were recurrent, the streams and their magnetic field patterns were not stationary, because the coronal holes which produced them changed in shape and latitude from one rotation to the next. We estimated that the magnetic field intensity of open field lines in some of these holes was of the order of 10'20 G. Recurrent slow flows were also observed. The magnetic field polarity and intensity in these flows were irregular, and they changed from one rotation to the next. Cold magnetic enhancements (CME's) characterized by a twofold to threefold enhancement of magnetic field intensity and a fivefold to sevenfold depression of proton temperature relative to conditions ahead of the CME's were observed in some slow flows. Some of these CME's were contiguous with interaction regions of streams. At perihelion, Helios observed a recurrent stream which was associated with a lobe of the south polar coronal hole. The longitudinal width of the stream was three times that of the hole. We estimate that the width of the eastern and western boundaries of the streams at the coronal holes was only 2.5° ± 1.5°, and we infer that the width at the northern boundary of the stream was ≲5°. We conclude that between the sun and 0.3 AU there was a diverging stream surrounded by a thin boundary layer in which there was a large velocity shear. There is evidence for compression of the magnetic field in the western boundary layer (interaction region), presumably due to steepening of the stream within 0.31 AU.