Exploring the Solar Wind from its Source on the Corona into the Inner Heliosphere during the First Solar Orbiter - Parker Solar Probe Quadrature

Abstract

This Letter addresses the first Solar Orbiter (SO) -- Parker Solar Probe (PSP) quadrature, occurring on January 18, 2021, to investigate the evolution of solar wind from the extended corona to the inner heliosphere. Assuming ballistic propagation, the same plasma volume observed remotely in corona at altitudes between 3.5 and 6.3 solar radii above the solar limb with the Metis coronagraph on SO can be tracked to PSP, orbiting at 0.1 au, thus allowing the local properties of the solar wind to be linked to the coronal source region from where it originated. Thanks to the close approach of PSP to the Sun and the simultaneous Metis observation of the solar corona, the flow-aligned magnetic field and the bulk kinetic energy flux density can be empirically inferred along the coronal current sheet with an unprecedented accuracy, allowing in particular estimation of the Alfvén radius at 8.7 solar radii during the time of this event. This is thus the very first study of the same solar wind plasma as it expands from the sub-Alfvénic solar corona to just above the Alfvén surface.

10 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (6)

• The Solar Orbiter mission -- Science overview
• Metis: the Solar Orbiter visible light and ultraviolet coronal imager
• The Depiction of Coronal Structure in White Light Images
• The Solar Orbiter Science Activity Plan: translating solar and heliospheric physics questions into action
• Collisional and Radiative Processes in Optically Thin Plasmas
• Flux conservation, radial scalings, Mach numbers, and critical distances in the solar wind: magnetohydrodynamics and Ulysses observations

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Modeling of Joint Parker Solar Probe - Metis/Solar Orbiter Observations
• Slow wind belt in the quiet solar corona
• The S-Web Origin of Composition Enhancement in the Slow-to-Moderate Speed Solar Wind
• Turbulence dynamics and flow speeds in the inner solar corona: Results from radio-sounding experiments by the Akatsuki spacecraft
• Migrating Dynamo Waves and Consequences for Stellar Current Sheets
• Does Turbulence along the Coronal Current Sheet Drive Ion Cyclotron Waves?
• NIRwave: A wave-turbulence-driven solar wind model constrained by PSP observations
• Probing the Density Fine Structuring of the Solar Corona with Comet Lovejoy