Updates

Fast-track revision published on 13 July 2007

Global description:

This revision includes 23 new references, two new Figures 11 and 13, and two revised Figures 14 and 15, which replace former Figures 12 and 13 of the original publication. Changes have been made to Sections 2.1, 2.3, 4.2, 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4. The most substantial revisions have taken place in Sections 4.3 and 5.1. Section 6, Conclusions, has been added. See below for more details on the changes.

Changes in detail:

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	I now acknowledge the early solar wind detection of the Soviet Luna missions of 1959. Added reference to Cranmer (2002).
	I have reworded the third paragraph to take into account Voyager 1’s 2004 crossing of the termination shock.
	In Section 4.2, I have revised the third paragraph to take into account numerous new heliospheric absorption detections that have been made since 2004. I have also revised the text below to consider the results of more sophisticated heliospheric models that have been published in the past few years. Added references to Malama et al. (2006), Wood et al. (2007b), Opher et al. (2006), Izmodenov et al. (2005), Pogorelov et al. (2006), and Wood et al. (2007a).
	This is where the most substantial revisions have taken place, in order to take into account the increase in astrospheric absorption detections from 6 to 13. This enlarges Table 1 and results in the addition of the two new Figures 11 and 13 . The discussion of the wind measurements, and the inferred wind/activity and wind/age relations, is necessarily revised significantly, basically along the lines of Wood et al. (2005a). The recent work of Holzwarth and Jardine (2007) is also noted.
	Along with Section 4.3, this is where the most substantial revisions have taken place, in order to take into account the increase in astrospheric absorption detections from 6 to 13. Figures 14 and 15 have been revised. The discussion of the wind measurements, and the inferred wind/activity and wind/age relations, is necessarily revised significantly, basically along the lines of Wood et al. (2005a). Added references to Schmitt and Liefke (2004), Strassmeier (2002), Schrijver and Title (2001), Toner and Gray (1988), and Petit et al. (2005).
	Some minor quantitative adjustments have had to be made based on the changes in Section 5.1, but there are no serious textual changes. In detail, $1.00 ± 0.26$ was changed to $1.17 ± 0.28$ in Equation 7 , and the upper limit for $m = 0– 2$ from $α < − 1.0$ to $α < − 1.3$ , for $m = 0– 1$ from $α < − 1.2$ to $α < − 1.7$ .
	In the second paragraph, 0.1% was changed to 0.2% and a reference to Minton and Malhotra (2007) added.
	The final paragraph has been revised to discuss the importance of solar-like winds for the atmospheric evolution of extrasolar planets, especially ones that orbit very close to their stars. Added references to Ribas et al. (2005), Grießmeier et al. (2004), and Preusse et al. (2005).
	Section 6 has been added to briefly discuss the future of the subject, and to provide a less abrupt ending to the article.