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UVCS Observations of Temperature and Velocity Profiles in Coronal Holes

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Abstract

The spectroscopic observations of the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS), on board the SOHO observatory, allow the study and the full characterization of the expansion of the solar atmosphere by means of measurements of the outflow speeds and the physical properties of the wind, directly in the region where the solar plasma is heated and accelerated: the extended corona. During solar minimum, when the magnetic configuration of the corona is rather simple, the open magnetic fields emerging from the wide polar coronal holes channel toward the heliosphere both the fast and the slow wind. The fast wind flows along flux tubes with lower areal divergence than the slow wind which is guided by flux tubes characterized by non-monotonic areal expansion functions. Differences in the physical properties, such as kinetic temperature, electron density, composition and density fluctuations, of the fast and slow wind in the corona are discussed.

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  1. INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino, Via Osservatorio 20, 10025, Pino Torinese, Italy

    Ester Antonucci, Lucia Abbo & Daniele Telloni

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  1. Ester Antonucci
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  2. Lucia Abbo
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  3. Daniele Telloni
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Correspondence to Ester Antonucci.

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Antonucci, E., Abbo, L. & Telloni, D. UVCS Observations of Temperature and Velocity Profiles in Coronal Holes. Space Sci Rev 172, 5–22 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-010-9739-7

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