Decimal logarithm of the velocity distribution functions (VDFs), for species α, plotted as a function of the signed kinetic energy normalized by v_T0, α². The VDFs are scaled by the corresponding number densities and normalized by v_T0, α³, where v_T0, α is defined by Eq. (31). Each panel compute the VDFs for different values of A as shown in the subplot title. In each panel the VDFs are computed using the three distribution of temperature increments γ₁(T) defined in Eq. (23) (solid), γ₂(T) defined in Eq. (24) (dashed) and γ₃(T) defined in Eq. (22) (dotted). Finally, in each panel, the VDFs are shown at three different heights (see their positions in Fig. 3): z₁ = 2 × 10³ km (base location, blue), z₂ = 3.5 × 10³ km (transition region, red), and z₃ = 14 × 10³ km (corona, green).