Contents

1  Introduction
2  Stellar parameters and global wind properties
    2.1  Global stellar wind parameters
    2.2  General strategy
    2.3  Stellar parameters from photospheric diagnostics
    2.4  Stellar wind diagnostics
        2.4.1  UV resonance and subordinate lines
        2.4.2  Optical lines
        2.4.3  IR lines
        2.4.4  IR, submillimeter and radio continua
        2.4.5  X-ray emission
3  Results
    3.1  Terminal velocities of winds from galactic hot stars
    3.2  Mass loss rates and wind momenta of galactic hot stars
    3.3  Observed effects of metallicity. The Magellanic Clouds
4  Interpretation based on the theory of line driven winds
    4.1  Non-rotating winds
    4.2  Influence of rotation
5  Time-dependence and structure
    5.1  Observational findings
    5.2  Theoretical considerations
    5.3  Implications with respect to global parameters
6  Winds and extragalactic stellar astronomy - outlook

7 Literature