2017/08/23 by Steven R. Cranmer, S. E. Gibson, Sarah E. Gibson +1 · 165 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrobiology #Astronomy #Corona (planetary geology) #Coronal hole #Coronal loop #Coronal mass ejection #Environmental science #Heliosphere #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Meteorology #Physics #Plasma #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Solar wind #Space weather #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s11214-017-0416-y
published in Space Science Reviews 212(3-4), 1345-1384 (Springer Science+Business Media) · Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Special issue connected with a 2016 ISSI workshop on "The Scientific Foundations of Space Weather." 44 pages, 9 figures
arxiv created 2017/08/23 · openalex publication_date 2017/10/02 · arxiv updated 2017/10/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/08
The Sun's outer atmosphere is heated to temperatures of millions of degrees, and solar plasma flows out into interplanetary space at supersonic speeds. This paper reviews our current understanding of these interrelated problems: coronal heating and the acceleration of the ambient solar wind. We also discuss where the community stands in its ability to forecast how variations in the solar wind (i.e., fast and slow wind streams) impact the Earth. Although the last few decades have seen significant progress in observations and modeling, we still do not have a complete understanding of the relevant physical processes, nor do we have a quantitatively precise census of which coronal structures contribute to specific types of solar wind. Fast streams are known to be connected to the central regions of large coronal holes. Slow streams, however, appear to come from a wide range of sources, including streamers, pseudostreamers, coronal loops, active regions, and coronal hole boundaries. Complicating our understanding even more is the fact that processes such as turbulence, stream-stream interactions, and Coulomb collisions can make it difficult to unambiguously map a parcel measured at 1 AU back down to its coronal source. We also review recent progress -- in theoretical modeling, observational data analysis, and forecasting techniques that sit at the interface between data and theory -- that gives us hope that the above problems are indeed solvable.