Related papers: Updated Measurements of Proton, Electron, and Oxyg…
We analyze measured proton and electron temperatures in the high-speed solar wind in order to calculate the separate rates of heat deposition for protons and electrons. When comparing with other regions of the heliosphere, the fast solar…
This paper reviews the current state of our understanding of high-speed solar wind acceleration in coronal holes. Observations by SOHO, coupled with interplanetary particle measurements going back several decades, have put strong…
This paper reviews our growing understanding of the physics behind coronal heating (in open-field regions) and the acceleration of the solar wind. Many new insights have come from the last solar cycle's worth of observations and theoretical…
Spacecraft observations have shown that the proton temperature in the solar wind falls off with radial distance more slowly than expected for an adiabatic prediction. Usually, previous studies have been focused on the evolution of the…
We explore a mechanism, entirely new to the fast solar wind, of electron heating by lower hybrid waves to explain the shift to higher charge states observed in various elements in the fast wind at 1 A.U. relative to the original coronal…
Over decades of solar wind observations, heavy ions have been observed to have a higher temperature and flow faster than protons in the solar corona and heliosphere. Remote observations have largely been limited to the low corona ($<…
Determining the mechanisms responsible for the heating of the coronal plasma and maintaining and accelerating the solar wind are long standing goals in solar physics. There is a clear need to constrain the energy, mass and momentum flux…
The Sun's outer atmosphere is heated to temperatures of millions of degrees, and solar plasma flows out into interplanetary space at supersonic speeds. This paper reviews our current understanding of these interrelated problems: coronal…
A central problem of space plasma physics is how protons and electrons are heated in a turbulent, magnetized plasma. The differential heating of charged species due to dissipation of turbulent fluctuations plays a key role in solar wind…
We utilize observations from the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) to study the radial evolution of the solar wind in the inner heliosphere. We analyze electron velocity distribution functions observed by the Solar Wind Electrons, Alphas, and…
This Letter reports the first observational estimate of the heating rate in the slowly expanding solar corona. The analysis exploits the simultaneous remote and local observations of the same coronal plasma volume with the Solar…
Stochastic heating is a non-linear heating mechanism driven by the violation of magnetic moment invariance due to large-amplitude turbulent fluctuations producing diffusion of ions towards higher kinetic energies in the direction…
We extend previous theories of stochastic ion heating to account for the motion of ions along the magnetic field. We derive an analytic expression for the ion-to-proton perpendicular temperature ratio in the solar wind for any ion species,…
Coronal holes are the darkest and least active regions of the Sun, as observed both on the solar disk and above the solar limb. Coronal holes are associated with rapidly expanding open magnetic fields and the acceleration of the high-speed…
The corona is a layer of hot plasma that surrounds the Sun, traces out its complex magnetic field, and ultimately expands into interplanetary space as the supersonic solar wind. Although much has been learned in recent decades from advances…
Weakly collisional plasmas are subject to nonlinear relaxation processes, which can operate at rates much faster than the particle collision frequencies. This causes the plasma to respond like a magnetised fluid despite having long particle…
The physical processes in the solar corona that shape the solar wind remain an active research topic. Modeling efforts have shown that energy and plasma exchanges near the transition region plays a crucial role in modulating solar wind…
We show that the coronal heating and the acceleration of the fast solar wind in the coronal holes are natural consequence of the footpoint fluctuations of the magnetic fields at the photosphere by one-dimensional, time-dependent, and…
Protons in the solar corona and heliosphere exhibit anisotropic velocity distributions, violation of magnetic moment conservation, and a general lack of thermal equilibrium with the other particle species. There is no agreement about the…
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…