Flux-tube geometry and solar wind speed during an activity cycle

Abstract

The solar wind speed at 1 AU shows variations in latitude and in time which reflect the evolution of the global background magnetic field during the activity cycle. It is commonly accepted that the terminal wind speed in a magnetic flux-tube is anti-correlated with its expansion ratio, which motivated the definition of widely-used semi-empirical scaling laws relating one to the other. In practice, such scaling laws require ad-hoc corrections. A predictive law based solely on physical principles is still missing. We test whether the flux-tube expansion is the controlling factor of the wind speed at all phases of the cycle and at all latitudes using a very large sample of wind-carrying open magnetic flux-tubes. We furthermore search for additional physical parameters based on the geometry of the coronal magnetic field which have an influence on the terminal wind flow speed. We use MHD simulations of the corona and wind coupled to a dynamo model to provide a large statistical ensemble of open flux-tubes which we analyse conjointly in order to identify relations of dependence between the wind speed and geometrical parameters of the flux-tubes which are valid globally (for all latitudes and moments of the cycle). Our study confirms that the terminal speed of the solar wind depends very strongly on the geometry of the open magnetic flux-tubes through which it flows. The total flux-tube expansion is more clearly anti-correlated with the wind speed for fast rather than for slow wind flows, and effectively controls the locations of these flows during solar minima. Overall, the actual asymptotic wind speeds attained are also strongly dependent on field-line inclination and magnetic field amplitude at the foot-points. We suggest ways of including these parameters on future predictive scaling-laws for the solar wind speed.Comment: Accepted for publicaton on Astronomy & Astrophysic