Magnetic Topology and the Structure of the Slow Solar Wind

Abstract

We present a 3D reduced magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) model of reflection driven Alfvén wave turbulence in an open magnetic field positioned near the solar equator. The non-linear interactions between outward and inward propagating waves generate turbulence. The RMHD equations describing the turbulence include the effects of solar wind outflow velocity on the dissipation of waves. For Alfvén wave turbulence to be a viable mechanism for heating the corona and accelerating the slow solar wind, there must be sufficient counter-propagating waves to generate the turbulence. In our previous study of the fast wind, we showed that the Alfvén wave turbulence model creates the energy needed for accelerating the fast solar wind, when observed density fluctuations are included in the model. Here, we will explore whether the conditions of the equatorial corona, a source of slow solar wind, are capable of generating sufficient Alfvén wave turbulence to account for the acceleration of the slow wind. We show that for a specific sets of model parameters, the energy from the Alfvén wave turbulence model is smaller by an order of magnitude than the energy needed to heat and accelerate the slow solar wind.