Quiescent current sheets in the solar wind and origins of slow wind

Solar wind near the heliospheric current sheet is investigated using Ulysses and ACE data in a superposed epoch analysis for several days on either side of the current sheets. Only data near sunspot minima are used, minimizing the influence of transients. New results are shown for composition and ionization state. Existing results showing a ∼2 day wide depletion in He/H (He++/H+) at the current sheet are confirmed, although the depletion is generally more narrow. A recent finding of a broad 5–10 day wide reduction in He/H around the current sheet is also confirmed. An important result is that the narrow depletion is not a real phenomenon but is instead a statistical consequence of the superposition of transient depletions that also create the broad reduction in the averages. These transient depletions last from a few hours up to several days, come from the core of streamers, and are embedded in a quasi‐steady flow from streamers' legs. Most depletions contain a current sheet just inside one edge, leading to the apparent narrow depletion at the current sheet in the superposed epoch analysis. These results lead us to a hypothesis for how the He/H depletions form with a current sheet just inside one edge. Fe/O fluctuations associated with the He/H fluctuations further show that mixing of plasma from coronal holes adjacent to streamer brightness boundaries into outflow inside the brightness boundary is not an important process.