The solar wind that streams out of the Sun to fill the heliosphere is divided into “fast” and “slow” wind streams. The origin of the slow solar wind remains enigmatic. One of the most popular current hypotheses involves a dynamic phenomenon known as “interchange magnetic reconnection” between closed and open magnetic field lines in the low corona. Here we discuss our ongoing efforts to test this hypothesis. These involve analysing the structure of models for the global field of the corona, as well as large-scale, adaptive-mesh, magnetohydrodynamic simulations.
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