Abstract
The effect of a new energy source due to energies transferred from supra-thermal secondary ions on the temperature profile of the solar wind has been considered. For this purpose a solution of a tri-fluid model of the solar wind including solar electrons, protons, and α-particles, and starting with the boundary conditions of Hartle and Barnes at 0.5 AU is given. On the base of the assumption that suprathermal He+-ions which have four times the temperature of suprathermal protons are predominantly coupled to solar α-particles by Alfvén waves, it is shown that the temperature T α of solar α-particles should be appreciably higher than those T p of solar protons beyond the orbit of the Earth. For 1 AU a temperature excess T α over T p according to that which has been found in some solar wind ion spectrograms can only be explained for a small part of the orbit of the earth which is inside the cone of enhanced helium densities. Around 1 AU the temperatures T α and T p are found to decrease much slighter with solar distance than given in the two-fluid model of Hartle and Barnes. Beyond 1.7 and 2.2 AU the temperatures T α and T p even start increasing with solar distance and come up to about 105 at about 10 AU. These predictions should lend some support to future temperature measurements with deep-space probes reaching Solar distances of some AU.
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Forschungsberichte des Astronomischen Institutes, Bonn, 72-10.
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Fahr, H.J. Non-thermal solar wind heating by supra-thermal ions. Sol Phys 30, 193–206 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00156188
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00156188