  The steady, supersonic outflow from the Sun we call the solar wind was first
posited in the 1950s and initial theories rightly linked the acceleration of
the wind to the existence of the million-degree solar corona. Still today, the
wind acceleration mechanisms and the coronal heating processes remain unsolved
challenges in solar physics. In this work, I seek to answer a portion of the
mystery by focusing on a particular acceleration process: Alfven waves launched
by the motion of magnetic field footpoints in the photosphere. The entire
corona is threaded with magnetic loops and flux tubes that open up into the
heliosphere. I have sought a better understanding of the role these magnetic
fields play in determining solar wind properties in open flux tubes. After an
introduction of relevant material, I discuss my parameter study of magnetic
field profiles and the statistical understanding we can draw from the resulting
steady-state wind. In the chapter following, I describe how I extended this
work to consider time dependence in the turbulent heating by Alfven waves in
three dimensional simulations. The bursty nature of this heating led to a
natural next step that expands my work to include not only the theoretical, but
also a project to analyze observations of small network jets in the
chromosphere and transition region, and the underlying photospheric magnetic
field that forms thresholds in jet production. In summary, this work takes a
broad look at the extent to which Alfven-wave-driven turbulent heating can
explain measured solar wind properties and other observed phenomena.
