CONSTRAINTS ON THE SOLAR CORONAL TEMPERATURE IN REGIONS OF OPEN MAGNETIC-FIELD

It is shown that the simultaneous consideration of observed values of the solar wind proton flux density at 1 AU and of the electron pressure at the base of the solar corona leads to relatively strong constraints on the coronal temperature in the region of subsonic solar wind flow. The extreme upper limit on the mean coronal temperature in the subsonic region is found to be about 2.6 × 106 K, but this upper limit is reduced to about 2.0 × 106 K if reasonable, rather than extreme, assumptions are made; the limit on the maximum temperature is about 0.5 × 106 K greater than the limit on the mean. It is also found that the same two observations limit the rate of momentum addition possible in the region of subsonic solar wind flow. © 1979 D. Reidel Publishing Co.