SOLAR WIND AND CORONAL BRIGHT POINTS INSIDE CORONAL HOLES

Observations of 108 coronal holes (CHs) from 1998-2008 were used to investigate the correlation between fast solar wind (SW) and several parameters of CHs. Our main goal was to establish the association between coronal bright points (CBPs; as sites of magnetic reconnection) and fast SW. Using in situ measurements of the SW, we have connected streams of the fast SW at 1 AU with their source regions, CHs. We studied a correlation between the SW speed and selected parameters of CHs: total area of the CH, total intensity inside the CH, fraction of area of the CH associated with CBPs, and their integrated brightness inside each CH. In agreement with previous studies, we found that the SW speed most strongly correlates with the total area of the CHs. The correlation is stronger for the non (de) projected areas of CHs (which are measured in image plane) suggesting that the near-equatorial parts of CHs make a larger contribution to the SW measured at near Earth orbit. This correlation varies with solar activity. It peaks for periods of moderate activity, but decreases slightly for higher or lower levels of activity. A weaker correlation between the SW speed and other studied parameters was found, but it can be explained by correlating these parameters with the CH's area. We also studied the spatial distribution of CBPs inside 10 CHs. We found that the density of CBPs is higher in the inner part of CHs. As such, results suggest that although the reconnection processes occurring in CBPs may contribute to the fast SW, they do not serve as the main mechanism of wind acceleration.