Response of the interplanetary hydrogen population to global changes of solar activity: a quantitative analysis based on SOHO/SWAN and SOHO/LASCO-C2 data comparison.

<p>For more than two decades the SOHO/SWAN instrument has been monitoring the full-sky hydrogen backscattered Lyman-α emission, and the derived three-dimensional solar wind proton flux. We present a comparison of the time series of the latitude-integrated hydrogen ionization rates (β) derived from the inversion of the SWAN full-sky maps with the integrated coronal electron density derived from the inversion of SOHO/LASCO-C2 white light images. The analysis shows a variable time lag of the SWAN β of a few Carrington rotations, correlated with the solar cycle phase (larger delay during solar maxima compared to minima). This is a direct consequence of the variation of the size of the hydrogen ionization cavity and the time it takes for hydrogen atoms to propagate in the inner heliosphere. This effect should be taken into account in studies of the interstellar neutral populations in interplanetary space.</p>

Empirical inner boundary conditions and rotation rates for solar wind models

<p>To date, the inner boundary conditions for solar wind models are either directly or indirectly based on magnetic field extrapolation models of the photosphere. Furthermore, between the photosphere and Earth, there are no other direct empirical constraints on models. New breakthroughs in coronal rotation tomography, applied to coronagraph observations, allow maps of the coronal electron density to be made in the heliocentric height range 4-12 solar radii (Rs). We show that these maps (i) give a new empirical boundary condition for solar wind structure at a height where the coronal magnetic field has become radial, thus avoiding the need to model the complex inner coronal magnetic field, and (ii) give accurate rotation rates for the corona, of crucial importance to the accuracy of solar wind models and forecasts.</p>