Solar wind proton flux extremes and their association with pseudostreamers

Proton flux, as defined by the product of proton number density and proton speed, while exhibiting remarkable constancy across heliographic latitudes from pole to equator as measured by the Ulysses spacecraft, nevertheless showed obvious departure from this constancy for some mid-latitude wind and extended to high heliomagnetic latitudes during the recent two solar minima. We examine the solar wind exclusive of ICMEs from Ulysses and ACE observations, to analyze the solar wind in-situ data exhibiting extremes in proton flux. We first find these extreme-proton-flux winds generally originate in latitudes middle-distant from the heliospheric current sheet (HCS), and they have relatively slower speed than the bulk of the solar wind. Then we map the in-situ ACE observations in Carrington rotation (CR) 1997 back to the solar surface by using the Potential-Field-Source-Surface (PFSS) model, in order to consider the coronal properties at the extreme-proton-flux wind sources. We find there is a clear association between these extreme-proton-flux solar wind and the mid-latitude coronal holes and «pseudostreamer» structures.