Regulation of solar wind heat flux by ordinary mode instability

The ordinary mode can frequently become unstable in the solar wind at 1 AU provided the ratio of halo to core electrons density does not exceed the value 0.05. The growth rates corresponding to the average conditions are typically 10 _P ( _P being the proton cyclotron frequency). Because of low threshold for onset of instability for _C 1 (where _C is the transverse beta for the core electrons), the mode is expected to play an important role in regulating the solar wind heat flux at 1 AU.