Measurements of Outflow Velocities in On-Disk Plumes from EIS Hinode Observations

Abstract

The contribution of plumes to the solar wind has been subject to hot debate in the past decades. The EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) on board Hinode provides a unique means to deduce outflow velocities at coronal heights via direct Doppler shift measurements of coronal emission lines. Such direct Doppler shift measurements were not possible with previous spectrometers. We measure the outflow velocity at coronal heights in several on-disk long-duration plumes, which are located in coronal holes and show significant blue shifts throughout the entire observational period. In one case, a plume is measured 4 hours apart. The deduced outflow velocities are consistent, suggesting that the flows are quasi-steady. Furthermore, we provide an outflow velocity profile along the plumes, finding that the velocity corrected for the line-of-sight effect can reach 10 km s${}^{-1}$ at 1.02 $R_{\odot }$, 15 km s${}^{-1}$ at 1.03 $R_{\odot }$, and 25 km s${}^{-1}$ at 1.05 $R_{\odot }$. This clear signature of steady acceleration, combined with the fact that there is no significant blue shift at the base of plumes, provides an important constraint on plume models. At the height of 1.03 $R_{\odot }$, EIS also deduced a density of 1.3$\times 10^8$ cm${}^{-3}$, resulting in a proton flux of about 4.2$\times 10^9$ cm${}^{-2}$s${}^{-1}$ scaled to 1AU, which is an order of magnitude higher than the proton input to a typical solar wind if a radial expansion is assumed. This suggests that, coronal hole plumes may be an important source of the solar wind.

accepted for publication in ApJ, 13 pages, 9 figures

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