Highly Alfvenic Slow Solar Wind

Abstract

It is commonly thought that fast solar wind tends to be highly Alfvenic, with strong correlations between velocity and magnetic fluctuations, but examples have been known for over 20 years in which slow wind is both Alfvenic and has many other properties more typically expected of fast solar wind. This paper will present a search for examples of such flows from more recent data, and will begin to characterize the general characteristics of them. A very preliminary search suggests that such intervals are more common in the rising phase of the solar cycle. These intervals are important for providing constraints on models of solar wind acceleration, and in particular the role waves might or might not play in that process.