Origins and properties of the quasi-stationary slow solar wind

Abstract

Comparisons of the brightness distributions of the white corona observed at distances of several solar radii with solar wind velocities derived from interplanetary-scintillation observations, as well as analyses of solar wind data obtained on spacecraft from December 1994 to June 1995, indicate that the fast solar wind can contain plasma with velocities V ≈ 300–450 km/s, approaching those typical for the slow solar wind that flows in the streamer belt and chains of streamers. At the same time, certain other parameters, first and foremost the plasma density N and ratio T/N0.5 (where T is the temperature), indicate that these two flows differ considerably. The slow solar wind flowing in the streamer belt and chains displays high densities N > 10 ± 2 cm−3 and low T/N0.5 1.7 × 104 K cm3/2. These properties probably indicate different origins of the fast and slow solar winds.