The high-latitude solar wind near sunspot maximum

We use an empirical relation between solar wind speed and coronal flux-tube expansion to predict what Ulysses might have seen had it flown over the solar poles during 1989-1991 instead of 1994-1996. The wind speed patterns, derived from solar magnetograph data, show the following characteristics: (1) high-speed streams having recurrence rates of 28-29 days and originating from midlatitude extensions of the polar coronal holes dominate the rising phase of the sunspot cycle (1987-1989); (2) the persistent high-speed polar wind disappears and low-speed wind is found at all latitudes during 1989-1990; (3) very fast, episodic "polar jets" are generated as active region fields surge to the poles at the time of polar field reversal (1990-1991). The wind speed patterns that Ulysses encounters during its second polar orbit are expected to show the same general characteristics.