English
Related papers

Related papers: Three-Dimensional Structure of Solar Wind Turbulen…

200 papers

We investigate the dependence of solar wind fluctuations measured by the Wind spacecraft on scale and on the degree of alignment between oppositely directed Elsasser fields. This alignment controls the strength of the non-linear…

Magnetic switchbacks are fluctuations in the solar wind in which the interplanetary magnetic field sharply deflects away from its background direction so as to create folds in magnetic field lines while remaining of roughly constant…

We discuss properties of Alfv\'enic fluctuations with large amplitude in plasmas characterised by low magnetic field compression. We note that in such systems power laws can not develop with arbitrarily steep slopes at large scales, i.e.…

Space Physics · Physics 2018-12-26 Lorenzo Matteini , David Stansby , Timothy Horbury , Christopher H. K. Chen

Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observed sub-Alfvenic solar wind intervals during encounters 8 - 14, and low-frequency magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in these regions may differ from that in super-Alfvenic wind. We apply a new mode-decomposition…

We present a study of magnetic field fluctuations, in a slow solar wind stream, close to ion scales, where an increase of the level of magnetic compressibility is observed. Here, the nature of these compressive fluctuations is found to be…

Kinetic plasma theory is used to generate synthetic spacecraft data to analyze and interpret the compressible fluctuations in the inertial range of solar wind turbulence. The kinetic counterparts of the three familiar linear MHD wave…

Space Physics · Physics 2015-06-05 K. G. Klein , G. G. Howes , J. M. TenBarge , S. D. Bale , C. H. K. Chen , C. S. Salem

It is well-recognized that the presence of magnetic fields will lead to anisotropic energy cascade and dissipation of astrophysical turbulence. With the diffusion approximation and linear dissipation rates, we study the cascade and damping…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2009-03-31 Yanwei Jiang , Siming Liu , Vahé Petrosian

The solar wind is a structured and complex system, in which the fields vary strongly over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. As an example, the turbulent activity in the wind affects the evolution in the heliosphere of the…

Space Physics · Physics 2015-06-19 M. E. Ruiz , S. Dasso , W. H. Matthaeus , J. M. Weygand

We extend a two-component model for the evolution of fluctuations in the solar wind plasma so that it is fully three-dimensional (3D) and also coupled self-consistently to the large-scale magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations describing the…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2016-12-14 Tobias Wiengarten , Sean Oughton , Eugene Engelbrecht , Horst Fichtner , Jens Kleimann , Klaus Scherer

A relationship is derived between power anisotropy and wavevector anisotropy in turbulent fluctuations. This can be used to interpret plasma turbulence measurements, for example in the solar wind. If fluctuations are anisotropic in shape…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2012-08-17 C. H. K. Chen , R. T. Wicks , T. S. Horbury , A. A. Schekochihin

We propose a simple statistical model of three-dimensionally anisotropic, intermittent, strong Alfv\'enic turbulence, incorporating both critical balance and dynamic alignment. Our model is based on log-Poisson statistics for Elsasser-field…

Space Physics · Physics 2017-02-08 A. Mallet , A. A. Schekochihin

One proposed mechanism for heating the solar wind, from close to the sun to beyond 10 AU, invokes low-frequency, oblique, Alfven-wave turbulence. Because small-scale oblique Alfven waves (kinetic Alfven waves) are compressive, the measured…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-13 Benjamin D. G. Chandran , Eliot Quataert , Gregory G. Howes , Qian Xia , Peera Pongkitiwanichakul

The fast solar wind shows a wide spectrum of transverse magnetic and velocity field perturbations. These perturbations are strongly correlated in the sense of Alfv\'en waves propagating mostly outward, from the Sun to the interplanetary…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2023-04-12 Réville Victor , Tenerani Anna , Velli Marco

The power spectrum of the evolving solar wind shows evidence of a spectral break between an inertial range of turbulent fluctuations at higher frequencies and a "$1/f$" like region at lower frequencies. In the ecliptic plane at $\sim 1$ AU,…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2009-09-24 R. M. Nicol , S. C. Chapman , R. O. Dendy

Spectral properties of a fully compressible solar wind Hall Magnetohydrodynamic plasma are investigated by means of time dependent three dimensional Hall MHD simulations. Our simulations, in agreement with spacecraft data, identify a…

Space Physics · Physics 2015-05-14 Dastgeer Shaikh , G. P. Zank

The turbulent spectrum of magnetic fluctuations in the solar wind displays a spectral break at ion characteristic scales. At electron scales the spectral shape is not yet completely established. Here, we perform a statistical study of 102…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2011-11-28 O. Alexandrova , C. Lacombe , A. Mangeney , R. Grappin

Turbulence, a ubiquitous phenomenon in interplanetary space, is crucial for the energy conversion of space plasma at multiple scales. This work focuses on the propagation, polarization and wave composition properties of the solar wind…

Space Physics · Physics 2020-09-09 Xingyu Zhu , Jiansen He , Daniel Verscharen , Die Duan , Stuart D. Bale

We use a large, statistical set of measurements from the Wind spacecraft at 1 AU, and supporting synthetic spacecraft data based on kinetic plasma theory, to show that the compressible component of inertial range solar wind turbulence is…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-28 G. G. Howes , S. D. Bale , K. G. Klein , C. H. K. Chen , C. S. Salem , J. M. TenBarge

We use fluctuating magnetic helicity to investigate the polarisation properties of Alfv\'enic fluctuations at ion-kinetic scales in the solar wind as a function of $\beta_p$, the ratio of proton thermal pressure to magnetic pressure, and…

Space Physics · Physics 2022-04-12 L. D. Woodham , R. T. Wicks , D. Verscharen , J. M. TenBarge , G. G. Howes

The solar wind and the interstellar medium are permeated by large-scale magnetic fields that render magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence anisotropic. In the weak-turbulence limit in which three-wave interactions dominate, analytical and…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2011-09-06 C. S. Ng , A. Bhattacharjee