Identification

Title

Association of solar wind proton flux extremes with pseudostreamers

Abstract

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 to and encompassing the past two solar minima, and the extreme-proton-flux wind possesses the following characteristics: (1) it generally originates from sources middle-distant from the Heliospheric Current Sheet (HCS); (2) it is associated with a broad range of velocities and electron temperatures but excludes very fast/cold wind; (3) it exhibits anticorrelation between electron temperature and proton velocity, as does the rest of the solar wind; (4) it has extreme proton density values relative to the rest of the solar wind; and (5) the extreme-high-proton-flux wind has radial component of open magnetic flux (Br) greater than the rest of the solar wind, and both extreme-high and extreme-low wind do not possess the lowest values of Br flux. Comparing with SOHO EIT 195 Å coronal images, we find the observed extreme-proton-flux wind has temporal and spatial coincidence with the appearance of low-latitude coronal holes present in the recent two solar minima; the magnetic field lines extrapolated by the Potential Field Source Surface model confirm there are coronal pseudostreamer structures involved. So we propose that these extreme-proton-flux winds can be associated with mid- to low-latitude coronal holes and "pseudostreamer" structures.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d70p10xh

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

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keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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East bounding longitude

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Temporal reference

Temporal extent

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End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2013-06-17T00:00:00Z

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Conformity

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Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact