Dr. Benjamin Lynch will give a talk entitled "Magnetic Reconnection in the Solar Corona: Consequences for the Generation of the Slow Solar Wind and its Variability" at 3:30 pm, Thursday, Oct. 20 in CSRB 2246. The seminar will also be available on Zoom. Visit the website for details.


Abstract:
Connecting the solar wind observed throughout the heliosphere to its origins in the solar corona is one of the central aims of heliophysics and a fundamental science objective of the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and Solar Orbiter missions. The slow solar wind exhibits significant variability on relatively short timescales, from minutes to days. It has been argued that this variability in the magnetic field, bulk plasma, and heavy ion composition properties of the slow wind are the result of magnetic reconnection processes in the extended solar corona. In this presentation, I will review some basic properties of the large-scale coronal flux systems associated with the intermittent release of closed-field plasma onto open field lines via interchange reconnection in terms of the so-called Separatrix-Web (S-Web) framework for describing the magnetic field connectivity. I will then present some recent analysis of the solar wind from 2003 April 15 to May 13 (Carrington Rotation 2002) in order to illustrate that intervals of slow-to-moderate speed wind with enhanced variability and ionic composition signatures can be related to specific S-Web topological structures in the corona. Specifically, there are four pseudostreamer wind intervals and two heliospheric current sheet/plasma sheet crossings (and an ICME) which all exhibit enhanced alpha-to-proton ratios and elevated ionic charge states of carbon, oxygen, and iron. Finally, I will briefly discuss the implications of these results for competing solar wind models, recent PSP observations, and the potential for PSP and Solar Orbiter joint observational campaigns