Solar Wind Streamer Belt Morphology

Trustees Of Boston University, Boston

Investigators

Abstract

The investigators will work towards an understanding of the region of the solar atmosphere known as the streamer belt. The main effort is to apply new tools to analyze the topology of coronal mass ejections in the solar wind and the local structure of the principal remnant of the streamer belt in the solar wind, the heliospheric current sheet. On a global scale the current sheet forms a tilted, warped, heliospheric equatorial plane, but data patterns consistent with convoluted, intertwined magnetic structures are found on the local scale. Tools used to untangle this structure will be combined with newer tools to analyze other streamer belt structures and their interrelationships. Primary among the newer tools will be composition data, which give fingerprints of solar sources. The anticipated results will advance our understanding of the sources and structure of the most complicated part of the solar wind. Some of the open questions are: To what extent does slow flow come from the edges of the coronal holes, from the streamer belt proper, or in the form of multiscale transients? To what extent can complex structures in the slow wind be ascribed to interplanetary processes rather than to solar origins? What are the magnetic topologies of the many types of structures identified in the slow wind? Why do coronal mass ejections observed as intrusions in fast flow have composition fingerprints of coronal holes if their origins are in the streamer belt? Do coronal mass ejections gradually evolve from magnetically closed to open structures? To what extent can answers to these questions be resolved in terms of a recently proposed model of general circulation of the footpoints of solar magnetic fields, which requires ubiquitous merging between open and closed field lines in the streamer belt? In addition to basic research, a handbook will be prepared as a public outreach project. Its primary purpose will be to provide guidelines for communicating to the public how coronal mass ejections can cause geomagnetic storms. In terms intelligible to the lay reader, it will point out common misconceptions and provide material for attention-grabbing descriptions that do not misinform. The handbook will be suitable not only for the press but for use as supplemental educational material for introductory courses in solar-terrestrial physics.