Letter to the Editor

Links between magnetic fields and plasma flows in a coronal hole

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Max-Planck-Strasse 2, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany e-mail: wiegelmann@linmpi.mpg.de
² School of Earth and Space Sciences, Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 23006, PR China

Received: 15 October 2004
Accepted: 20 January 2005

Abstract

We compare the small-scale features visible in the Ne viii Doppler-shift map of an equatorial coronal hole (CH) as observed by SUMER with the small-scale structures of the magnetic field as constructed from a simultaneous photospheric magnetogram by a potential magnetic-field extrapolation. The combined data set is analysed with respect to the small-scale flows of coronal matter, which means that the Ne viii Doppler-shift used as tracer of the plasma flow is investigated in close connection with the ambient magnetic field. Some small closed-field regions in this largely open CH are also found in the coronal volume considered. The Doppler-shift patterns are found to be clearly linked with the field topology.