HR: 11:15h
AN: SH22B-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Remote Sensing of the Electron Temperature and the Solar Wind Speed Near the Sun
AU: * Davila, J M
EM: josephmdavila@gmail.com
AF: Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 671, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Reginald, N
EM: Nelson.Reginald@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: The Catholic University of America, Department of Physics, Washington, DC 20064, United States
AU: St. Cyr, O C
EM: Chris.StCyr@nasa.gov
AF: Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 671, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AB: In-situ observations provide detailed information on the state of the solar wind at a particular observation site. But observation of the global state of the solar wind would require many observation points strategically placed throughout the heliosphere. In this paper we report the results of a new optical experiment (the Multi-Aperture Coronal Spectrograph, MACS) to obtain the electron temperature and flow speed in the solar corona by observing the visible K-coronal spectrum during the total solar eclipse on 29 March 2006 in Libya. Results show electron temperatures of 1.10 ± 0.05, 0.98 ± 0.12, and 0.70 ± 0.08 MK, at 1.1 R_\odot in the solar north, east and west, respectively, and 0.93 ± 0.12 MK, at 1.2 R_\odot in the solar east. The corresponding speeds obtained are 103.0 ± 92.0, 0.0 + 10.0, 0.0 + 10.0, and 0.0 + 10.0 km-s^-1. The outer corona, where the solar wind speed is high, is too faint to observe during an eclipse from the ground but it is easily observed from space. Using the technique demonstrated by MACS, the next generation of solar coronagraphs will be able to provide not just density, but also the temperature and flow speed of the solar wind in the inner corona. This information will improve our models of the heliosphere, and significantly increase our understanding of the solar wind.
DE: 7509 Corona
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting