An Ion-Cyclotron Resonance-driven Three-Fluid Model of the Slow Wind near the Sun

Abstract

A three-fluid slow wind consisting of electrons, protons, and O⁺⁵ ions is constructed to account for a recent UVCS/SOHO observation. In this model, ion-cyclotron waves, which are assumed to be generated by a Kolmogorov turbulent cascade, are assumed to play a key role in driving the slow solar wind. By reproducing recent measurements on the O⁺⁵ parameters along a streamer axis and the well-known average proton flux in the slow wind near the Earth, it is demonstrated that the ion-cyclotron resonance mechanism proposed to explain the observations in the coronal hole and fast wind may also be important to the ions in the slow solar wind.