Sources of Solar Wind at Solar Minimum: Constraints from Composition Data

In this discussion of observational constraints on the source regions and acceleration processes of solar wind, we will focus on the ionic composition of the solar wind and the distribution of charge states of heavy elements such as oxygen and iron. We first focus on the now well-known bi-modal nature of solar wind, which dominates the heliosphere at solar minimum: Compositionally cool solar wind from polar coronal holes over-expands, filling a much larger solid angle than the coronal holes on the Sun. We use a series of remote and in-situ characteristics to derive a global geometric expansion factor of ∼5. Slower, streamer-associated wind is located near the heliospheric current sheet with a width of 10–20°, but in a well-defined band with a geometrically small transition width. We then compute charge states under the assumption of thermal electron distributions and temperature, velocity, and density profiles predicted by a recent solar wind model, and conclude that the solar wind originates from a hot source at around 1 million K, characteristic of the closed corona.