Evidence for a coronal magnetic bottle at 10 solar radii

The Faraday rotation of a radio source (Pioneer 6) occulted by the solar corona has been measured by Levy et al. (1969). During the course of these measurements, three large-scale transient phenomena were observed. These events were preceded by subflares and class 1 flares. These transient events are interpreted as evidence for a coronal magnetic bottle at 10 R _⊙. The velocity of propagation for the disturbance is set at 200 km/sec; the dimension of the region, 10 R _⊙; field strength at 10 R _⊙, 0.02 G; particle density, 2.0 × 10⁴/cm³; Alfvén speed, 320 km/sec. From the nature of the observations and the lack of related effects from similar flares on the interplanetary sector pattern observed at 1 AU, it is suggested that such coronal magnetic bottles expand to perhaps 10–30 R _⊙ and then contract to a few solar radii. Such a phenomena is evidence for an expansion of the corona with a sub-Alfvénic velocity. It is further suggested that such magnetic bottles may be important in the storage and diffusion of solar generated cosmic ray particles. NAS-NRC Postdoctoral Resident Research Associate.