ترغب بنشر مسار تعليمي؟ اضغط هنا

The Ion Transition Range of Solar Wind Turbulence in the Inner Heliosphere: Parker Solar Probe Observations

103   0   0.0 ( 0 )
 نشر من قبل Shiyong Huang
 تاريخ النشر 2021
  مجال البحث فيزياء
والبحث باللغة English




اسأل ChatGPT حول البحث

The scaling of the turbulent spectra provides a key measurement that allows to discriminate between different theoretical predictions of turbulence. In the solar wind, this has driven a large number of studies dedicated to this issue using in-situ data from various orbiting spacecraft. While a semblance of consensus exists regarding the scaling in the MHD and dispersive ranges, the precise scaling in the transition range and the actual physical mechanisms that control it remain open questions. Using the high-resolution data in the inner heliosphere from Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission, we find that the sub-ion scales (i.e., at the frequency f ~ [2, 9] Hz) follow a power-law spectrum f^a with a spectral index a varying between -3 and -5.7. Our results also show that there is a trend toward and anti-correlation between the spectral slopes and the power amplitudes at the MHD scales, in agreement with previous studies: the higher the power amplitude the steeper the spectrum at sub-ion scales. A similar trend toward an anti-correlation between steep spectra and increasing normalized cross helicity is found, in agreement with previous theoretical predictions about the imbalanced solar wind. We discuss the ubiquitous nature of the ion transition range in solar wind turbulence in the inner heliosphere.



قيم البحث

اقرأ أيضاً

The slow solar wind is typically characterized as having low Alfvenicity. However, Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observed predominately Alfvenic slow solar wind during several of its initial encounters. From its first encounter observations, about 55.3% o f the slow solar wind inside 0.25 au is highly Alfvenic ($|sigma_C| > 0.7$) at current solar minimum, which is much higher than the fraction of quiet-Sun-associated highly Alfvenic slow wind observed at solar maximum at 1 au. Intervals of slow solar wind with different Alfvenicities seem to show similar plasma characteristics and temperature anisotropy distributions. Some low Alfvenicity slow wind intervals even show high temperature anisotropies, because the slow wind may experience perpendicular heating as fast wind does when close to the Sun. This signature is confirmed by Wind spacecraft measurements as we track PSP observations to 1 au. Further, with nearly 15 years of Wind measurements, we find that the distributions of plasma characteristics, temperature anisotropy and helium abundance ratio ($N_alpha/N_p$) are similar in slow winds with different Alfvenicities, but the distributions are different from those in the fast solar wind. Highly Alfvenic slow solar wind contains both helium-rich ($N_alpha/N_psim0.045$) and helium-poor ($N_alpha/N_psim0.015$) populations, implying it may originate from multiple source regions. These results suggest that highly Alfvenic slow solar wind shares similar temperature anisotropy and helium abundance properties with regular slow solar winds, and they thus should have multiple origins.
The anisotropy of solar wind turbulence is a critical issue in understanding the physics of energy transfer between scales and energy conversion between fields and particles in the heliosphere. Using the measurement of emph{Parker Solar Probe} (emph{ PSP}), we present an observation of the anisotropy at kinetic scales in the slow, Alfvenic, solar wind in the inner heliosphere. textbf{The magnetic compressibility behaves as expected for kinetic Alfvenic turbulence below the ion scale.} A steepened transition range is found between the inertial and kinetic ranges in all directions with respect to the local background magnetic field direction. The anisotropy of $k_perp gg k_parallel$ is found evident in both transition and kinetic ranges, with the power anisotropy $P_perp/P_parallel > 10$ in the kinetic range leading over that in the transition range and being stronger than that at 1 au. The spectral index varies from $alpha_{tparallel}=-5.7pm 1.0$ to $alpha_{tperp}=-3.7pm 0.3$ in the transition range and $alpha_{kparallel}=-3.12pm 0.22$ to $alpha_{kperp}=-2.57pm 0.09$ in the kinetic range. The corresponding wavevector anisotropy has the scaling of $k_parallel sim k_perp^{0.71pm 0.17}$ in the transition range, and changes to $k_parallel sim k_perp^{0.38pm 0.09}$ in the kinetic range, consistent with the kinetic Alfvenic turbulence at sub-ion scales.
The first computation of the compressible energy transfer rate from $sim$ 0.2 AU up to $sim$ 1.7 AU is obtained using PSP, THEMIS and MAVEN observations. The compressible energy cascade rate $varepsilon_C$ is computed for hundred of events at differe nt heliocentric distances, for time intervals when the spacecraft were in the pristine solar wind. The observational results show moderate increases of $varepsilon_C$ with respect to the incompressible cascade rate $varepsilon_I$. Depending on the level of compressibility in the plasma, which reach up to 25 $%$ in the PSP perihelion, the different terms in the compressible exact relation are shown to have different impact in the total cascade rate $varepsilon_C$. Finally, the observational results are connected with the local ion temperature and the solar wind heating problem.
Direct evidence of an inertial-range turbulent energy cascade has been provided by spacecraft observations in heliospheric plasmas. In the solar wind, the average value of the derived heating rate near 1 au is $sim 10^{3}, mathrm{J,kg^{-1},s^{-1}}$, an amount sufficient to account for observed departures from adiabatic expansion. Parker Solar Probe (PSP), even during its first solar encounter, offers the first opportunity to compute, in a similar fashion, a fluid-scale energy decay rate, much closer to the solar corona than any prior in-situ observations. Using the Politano-Pouquet third-order law and the von Karman decay law, we estimate the fluid-range energy transfer rate in the inner heliosphere, at heliocentric distance $R$ ranging from $54,R_{odot}$ (0.25 au) to $36,R_{odot}$ (0.17 au). The energy transfer rate obtained near the first perihelion is about 100 times higher than the average value at 1 au. This dramatic increase in the heating rate is unprecedented in previous solar wind observations, including those from Helios, and the values are close to those obtained in the shocked plasma inside the terrestrial magnetosheath.
We investigate the solar wind energy flux in the inner heliosphere using 12-day observations around each perihelion of Encounter One (E01), Two (E02), Four (E04), and Five (E05) of Parker Solar Probe (PSP), respectively, with a minimum heliocentric d istance of 27.8 solar radii ($R_odot{}$). Energy flux was calculated based on electron parameters (density $n_e$, core electron temperature $T_{c}$, and suprathermal electron temperature $T_{h}$) obtained from the simplified analysis of the plasma quasi-thermal noise (QTN) spectrum measured by RFS/FIELDS and the bulk proton parameters (bulk speed $V_p$ and temperature $T_p$) measured by the Faraday Cup onboard PSP, SPC/SWEAP. Combining observations from E01, E02, E04, and E05, the averaged energy flux value normalized to 1 $R_odot{}$ plus the energy necessary to overcome the solar gravitation ($W_{R_odot{}}$) is about 70$pm$14 $W m^{-2}$, which is similar to the average value (79$pm$18 $W m^{-2}$) derived by Le Chat et al from 24-year observations by Helios, Ulysses, and Wind at various distances and heliolatitudes. It is remarkable that the distributions of $W_{R_odot{}}$ are nearly symmetrical and well fitted by Gaussians, much more so than at 1 AU, which may imply that the small heliocentric distance limits the interactions with transient plasma structures.
التعليقات
جاري جلب التعليقات جاري جلب التعليقات
mircosoft-partner

هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا