Solar wind ion trends and signatures: STEREO PLASTIC observations approaching solar minimum
oleh: A. B. Galvin, M. A. Popecki, K. D. C. Simunac, L. M. Kistler, L. Ellis, J. Barry, L. Berger, L. M. Blush, P. Bochsler, P. Bochsler, C. J. Farrugia, L. K. Jian, E. K. J. Kilpua, B. Klecker, M. Lee, Y. C.-M. Liu, J. L. Luhmann, E. Moebius, A. Opitz, C. T. Russell, B. Thompson, R. F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, P. Wurz
| Format: | Article |
|---|---|
| Diterbitkan: | Copernicus Publications 2009-10-01 |
Deskripsi
STEREO has now completed the first two years of its mission, moving from close proximity to Earth in 2006/2007 to more than 50 degrees longitudinal separation from Earth in 2009. During this time, several large-scale structures have been observed in situ. Given the prevailing solar minimum conditions, these structures have been predominantly coronal hole-associated solar wind, slow solar wind, their interfaces, and the occasional transient event. In this paper, we extend earlier solar wind composition studies into the current solar minimum using high-resolution (1-h) sampling times for the charge state analysis. We examine 2-year trends for iron charge states and solar wind proton speeds, and present a case study of Carrington Rotation 2064 (December 2007) which includes minor ion (He, Fe, O) kinetic and Fe composition parameters in comparison with proton and magnetic field signatures at large-scale structures observed during this interval.