CONNECTING THE SOLAR WIND OBSERVED THROUGHOUT THE HELIOSPHERE TO ITS ORIGINS IN THE SUN S CORONA HAS LONG BEEN ONE OF THE CENTRAL GOALS OF HELIOPHYSICS AND IS ESSENTIAL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE BASIC PHYSICAL PROCESSES DRIVING SOLAR AND HELIOSPHERIC ACTIVITY AND FOR DEVELOPING PREDICTIVE SPACE WEATHER MODELS. OUR PROPOSED DATA ANALYSIS PROJECT STARTS FROM THE RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEPARATRIX-WEB (S-WEB) MODEL FOR THE ORIGIN OF SLOW SOLAR WIND AND MHD SIMULATIONS OF INTERCHANGE RECONNECTION IN DIFFERENT CORONAL ENVIRONMENTS. MAGNETIC RECONNECTION IN THE CORONA AND THE EVOLUTION AND PROPAGATION OF ITS OUTFLOW INTO THE HELIOSPHERE SUGGEST SPECIFIC AND OBSERVABLE STRUCTURES IN THE SOLAR WIND S MAGNETIC FIELD AND PLASMA SIGNATURES OVER A WIDE RANGE OF SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SCALES. FOR EXAMPLE RECENT ANALYSIS BY KEPKO ET AL. (2016 GRL 43 4089) DESCRIBE THE COINCIDENCE AND CORRELATION OF MULTIPLE PLASMA AND COMPOSITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS AND BOUNDARIES IN A 90-MINUTE PERIOD OF OTHERWISE PRISTINE SLOW SOLAR WIND. WE PROPOSE TO USE THE SOHO STEREO AND SDO WHITE-LIGHT CORONAGRAPH EUV IMAGING AND MAGNETOGRAPH OBSERVATIONS TO PROVIDE THE GLOBAL SOLAR CONTEXT AND MAGNETIC FIELD GEOMETRY OF THE SOURCE REGIONS FOR THE PERIODS OF SLOW SOLAR WIND UNDER INVESTIGATION. WE WILL ANALYZE IN-SITU MEASUREMENTS FROM ACE STEREO AND WIND TO CHARACTERIZE THE STRUCTURES AND VARIABILITY IN CORONAL STREAMER AND PSEUDOSTREAMER WIND IN ORDER TO IDENTIFY THE REMNANT SIGNATURES OF CORONAL MAGNETIC RECONNECTION RETAINED IN THE SOLAR WIND.
$329,348FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
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