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Detailed Reference Information |
Ipavich, F.M., Galvin, A.B., Gloeckler, G., Hovestadt, D., Bame, S.J., Klecker, B., Scholer, M., Fisk, L.A. and Fan, C.Y. (1986). Solar wind Fe and CNO measurements in high-speed flows. Journal of Geophysical Research 91: doi: 10.1029/JA091iA04p04133. issn: 0148-0227. |
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We present solar wind Fe charge state and density measurements from two time periods of high-speed solar wind occurring during a flare-associated driver plasma and two time periods during coronal hole--associated high-speed streams. This constitutes the first reported measurements of Fe charge states in coronal hole--associated high-speed streams. The observations, made with the ultralow energy charge analyzer (ULECA) sensor on ISEE 3, indicate that the iron in the driver plasma solar wind was predominately of charge state 15 or 16, indicative of an unusually high coronal temperature (~4¿106 K). In contrast, the Fe charge state distributions in the coronal hole--associated high-speed streams peak at 9 or 10, indicating a much lower coronal temperature (~1.4¿106 K). We also present the charge state distribution of the CNO group in one coronal hole--associated stream and find an ionization temperature of (1.3¿0.3)¿106 K. Combining the ULECA measurements with proton observations made with the Los Alamos National Laboratory solar wind instrument on ISEE 3, we find that the speed of solar wind iron is equal to that of hydrogen in the driver plasma but is substantially higher (by about the Alfv¿n speed) in the coronal hole flows. Both the iron-hydrogen velocity difference and the calculated temperature gradient from the corona to 1 AU suggest that although the driver plasma expansion was nearly adiabatic, an extended energy input existed for the coronal hole flows. The abundance ratio Fe/H, relative to the nominal interstream value, is found to be enhanced by a factor of ~2 in the driver plasma and depressed by a factor of ~2 in the coronal hole--associated solar wind. |
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
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