[1] We investigate the characteristics and solar origins of a subpopulation of the solar wind that possesses extreme values of proton flux. Ulysses observations including solar wind magnetic flux, proton flux, number density and velocity, and ionic composition are examined in this study. We find that the departures of solar wind proton flux from its constancy occur for time intervals leading up...

A theory for the origin of the slow solar wind is described. Recent papers have demonstrated that magnetic flux moves across coronal holes as a result of the interplay between the differential rotation of the photosphere and the non-radial expansion of the solar wind in more rigidly rotating coronal holes. This flux will be deposited at low latitudes and should reconnect with closed magnetic lo...

A&G • February 2013 • Vol. 54 1.25 The continuous flow of matter that escapes out of the solar gravitational well is known as the solar wind. As the material flows out of the Sun, it is accelerated to between 400 and 800 km s. Through this continuous flow of material, the Sun loses more than one million tonnes every second. But this is just a tiny fraction, corresponding to 2 × 10 of a solar ma...

[1] To determine the efficacy of turbulence in the solar wind, the amount of mixing of the solar wind plasma is quantified. If magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in the solar wind acts as does Navier-Stokes turbulence, the chunk mixture of scalar quantities in the solar wind plasma should evolve with time. In particular, (1) the sizes of plasma chunks should decrease with distance from the Sun owin...

As a weakly magnetized planet, Mars ionosphere/atmosphere interacts directly with the shocked solar wind plasma flow. Even though many numerical studies have been successful in reproducing numerous features of the interaction process, these earlier studies focused mainly on interaction under steady solar wind conditions. Recent observations suggest that plasma escape fluxes are significantly en...

Using data obtained between 1991 and 1996 with the SWICS instrument (Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer) aboard the Ulysses spacecraft, a long time average of the (4He/3He) isotopic ratio of 2450 ± 460 in coronal hole dominated solar wind is derived. To assess the influence of inefficient Coulomb friction in the inner corona and to infer the solar photospheric abundance ratio from the sola...

Fast solar wind has been recognized, about 40 years ago, to originate in polar coronal holes (CHs), that, since then, have been identified with sources of recurrent high speed wind streams. As of today, however, there is no general consensus about whether there are, within CHs, preferential locations where the solar wind is accelerated. Knowledge of slow wind sources is far from complete as wel...

The abundance of He in the present day local interstellar cloud (LIC) and in the sun has important implications for the study of galactic evolution and for estimating the production of light nuclei in the early universe. Data from the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) on Ulysses is used to measure the isotopic ratio of helium (He=He = Γ) both in the solar wind and the local inters...

The Western Wind and Solar Integration Study Phase 1 (WWSIS1) investigated the impacts of high penetrations of wind and solar power on the Western Interconnection of the United States. The Western Wind and Solar Integration Study Phase 2 (WWSIS2) built on Phase 1 but with far greater refinement in the level of data inputs and production simulation. It considered the differences between wind and...

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) was launched in December 1995 with a suite of instruments designed to answer long-standing questions about the Sun’s internal structure, its extensive outer atmosphere, and the solar wind. This paper reviews the new understanding of the physical processes responsible for the solar wind that have come from the past 8 years of SOHO observations, analy...