Origins of Very Low Helium Abundance Streams Detected in the Solar Wind Plasma

Abstract

The abundance of helium ( A _He ) in the solar wind exhibits variations typically in the range from 2% to 5% with respect to solar cycle activity and solar wind velocity. However, there are instances where the observed A _He is exceptionally low (<1%). These low- A _He occurrences are detected both near the Sun and at 1 au. The low- A _He events are generally observed near the heliospheric current sheet. We analyzed 28 low- A _He events observed by the Wind spacecraft and 4 by Parker Solar Probe to understand their origin. In this work, we make use of the ADAPT-WSA model to derive the sources of our events at the base of the solar corona. The modeling suggests that the low- A _He events originated from the boundaries of coronal holes, primarily from large quiescent helmet streamers. We argue that the cusp above the core of the streamer can produce such very low helium abundance events. The streamer core serves as an ideal location for gravitational settling to occur as demonstrated by previous models, leading to the release of this plasma through reconnection near the cusp, resulting in low- A _He events. Furthermore, observations from Ulysses provide direct evidence that these events originated from coronal streamers.

Keywords

• Solar wind
• Solar abundances
• Heliosphere
• Solar corona
• Solar magnetic fields