On Competing Models of Coronal Heating and Solar Wind Acceleration: The Debate in '08

Abstract

In preparation for lively debate at the May 2008 SPD/AGU Meeting in Fort Lauderdale, this document attempts to briefly lay out my own view of the evolving controversy over how the solar wind is accelerated. It is still unknown to what extent the solar wind is fed by flux tubes that remain open (and are energized by footpoint-driven wavelike fluctuations), and to what extent much of the mass and energy is input more intermittently from closed loops into the open-field regions. It may turn out that a combination of the two ideas is needed to explain the full range of observed solar wind phenomena.