The Evolution and Role of Solar Wind Turbulence in the Inner Heliosphere
By C. Chen, S. Bale, John W. Bonnell, D. Borovikov, T. Bowen, D. Burgess, A. Case, B. Chandran, T. D. D. Wit, K. Goetz and 14 more. Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 2019
232 citations recorded by the source corpus.
The first two orbits of the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft have enabled the first in situ measurements of the solar wind down to a heliocentric distance of 0.17 au (or 36 ). Here, we present an analysis of this data to study solar wind turbulence at 0.17 au and its evolution out to 1 au. While many features remain similar, key differences at 0.17 au include increased turbulence energy levels by more than an order of magnitude, a magnetic field spectral index of −3/2 matching that of the velocity and both Elsasser fields, a lower magnetic compressibility consistent with a smaller slow-mode kinetic energy fraction, and a much smaller outer scale that has had time for substantial nonlinear processing. There is also an overall increase in the dominance of outward-propagating Alfvénic fluctuations compared to inward-propagating ones, and the radial variation of the inward component is consistent with its generation by reflection from the large-scale gradient in Alfvén speed. The energy flux in this turbulence at 0.17 au was found to be ∼10% of that in the bulk solar wind kinetic energy, becoming ∼40% when extrapolated to the Alfvén point, and both the fraction and rate of increase of this flux toward the Sun are consistent with turbulence-driven models in which the solar wind is powered by this flux.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3eada8d23588e896abe2fdf5d09ef4194aee6a09
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Astronomy and Astrophysics
- C. Chen
- S. Bale
- V. Krasnoselskikh
- John W. Bonnell
- William H. Matthaeus
- S. Cranmer
- V. Angelopoulos
- Don B. Melrose
Citations in the corpus
- Switchbacks in the Near-Sun Magnetic Field: Long Memory and Impact on the Turbulence Cascade (2019, background): “…similarity of the spectral indices as inferred from the active regime and as reported for the inertial range of turbulence in the inner heliosphere (Chen et al. 2020) or in corresponding MHD turbulence models (Chandran et al. 2015), as if a mix of switchback with pristine unevolved solar wind…”