In the preceding chapter we learned that solar plasma outflows arise as a natural result of the corona’s physical state. Simply put, the corona is the hot, mainly hydrogen atmosphere of the Sun, heated at its base and surrounded by relatively empty space. In spite of the Sun’s deep gravitational well, the thermal pressure gradient forces and ionizing photon flux together produce an extended, highly ionized corona with a fraction of its thermal speed distribution above the Sun’s 618 km s−1 escape velocity. But the nearly complete ionization of the corona and the solar magnetic field together ensure that this atmosphere and its escaping component are not spherically symmetric.