COROTATING AND TRANSIENT SOLAR WIND FLOWS IN THREE DIMENSIONS

Abstract

▪ Abstract  Two types of flows dominate the large-scale structure of the solar wind: corotating flows and transient disturbances. Corotating flows are associated with spatial variability in the coronal expansion and solar rotation, whereas transient disturbances are associated with episodic ejections of material into interplanetary space from coronal regions not previously participating in the solar wind expansion. Ulysses' recent epic journey over the poles of the Sun has provided new insights on the three-dimensional nature of both corotating flows and transient disturbances in the solar wind and their evolution with heliocentric distance and latitude. This paper provides a simple physical description of the origins and dynamics of both of these types of solar wind flows, highlighting new understanding gained from the unique Ulysses high-latitude observations.