To understand the origin of the solar wind from low-latitude coronal holes, including coronal hole boundaries by characterizing the physical properties of the coronal plasma (temperature, density, abundance, outflow velocity) with coordinated multi-spacecraft and ground-based observations in order to investigate the physical processes that lead to the origin of the solar wind.
These observations would improve on previous studies by coordinating observations with a battery of instruments providing co-spatial, co-temporal and good coverage in heliocentric distance from the solar disk to solar wind locations over 1 AU.
This study will combine spectroscopy, imaging, IPS and in-situ data to derive the plasma physical properties and the geometry of the coronal hole. The combination of these measurements would provide a 3-D view of solar wind properties.
We are interested in observing holes producing fast or slow wind. Fast solar wind speeds above 600 km/s have been reported for large equatorial coronal holes (Nolte et al. 1976, Miralles et al. 2001a). Slower solar wind speeds were reported for low-latitude holes of smaller size, between 300 and 600 km/s, near solar minimum (Neugebauer et al. 1998).
We are also interested in studying the temporal evolution of coronal and solar wind properties by monitoring plasma properties at different heights in the corona and in the solar wind during the campaign. Jets and plumes have been studied on polar holes, but there are not many studies of those in low-latitude holes. The contribution and role of both, plumes and jets, to the solar wind is still unknown. This campaign will also emphasize on identifying and tracing jets and plumes from the solar surface into the accelerating solar wind and determining their physical properties as a function of height and time. |
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