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J. M. Laming, U. Feldman (NRL)
We report on the progress of work to measure the helium abundance in various regions of the solar corona. Concentrating on polar coronal holes, we find similar helium abundances to those measured in the fast solar wind, i.e. 4-5% by number relative to hydrogen at an altitude approximately 100 arcseconds above the limb. This suggests that the flows of hydrogen and helium up into the fast solar wind must be locked together, presumably by plasma waves, since otherwise large variations of the He/H abundance ratio could result.
This work is supported by the NRL/ONR Solar Magnetism and the Earth's Environment 6.1 Research Option and by NASA Contract S137836.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.