Coronal temperature profiles obtained from kinetic models and from coronal brightness measurements obtained during solar eclipses

Coronal density, temperature and heat flux distributions for the equatorial and polar corona have been deduced by Lemaire [2012] from Saito's model of averaged coronal white light (WL) brightness and polarization observations. They are compared with those determined from a kinetic collisionless/exospheric model of the solar corona. This comparison indicates rather similar distributions at large radial distances (> 7 Rs) in the collisionless region. However, rather important differences are found close to the Sun in the acceleration region of the solar wind. The exospheric heat flux is directed away from the Sun, while that inferred from all WL coronal observations is in the opposite direction, i.e., conducting heat from the inner corona toward the chromosphere. This could indicate that the source of coronal heating rate extends up into the inner corona where it maximizes at r > 1.5 Rs well above the transition region.

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