Solar wind Dryer, A self-consistent solution of the three-fluid model of the Solar Wind. Astrophys. J., 222 (2), 689-695, 1978. S. Cuperman and N. Metzler, Comments on Acceleration of Solar Wind He++3 effects of Resonant and nonresonant interactions with transverse waves. J. Geophys. Res. 84 (NA5), 2139-2140 (1979) N. Metzler, S. Cuperman, M. Dryer and P. Rosenau, A time-dependent two-fluid model with thermal conduction for Solar Wind. Astrophys. J., 231 (3) 960-976, 1979. Solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma consists of mostly electrons, protons
Plasma (physics) Because of the large difference in mass, the electrons come to thermodynamic equilibrium amongst themselves much faster than they come into equilibrium with the ions or neutral atoms. For this reason, the ion temperature may be very different from (usually lower than) the electron temperature. This is especially common in weakly ionised technological plasmas, where the ions are often near the ambient temperature. For plasma to exist, ionisation is necessary. The term "plasma density" by itself usually refers to the "electron density", that is, the number of free electrons per unit volume. The degree of ionisation of a plasma is