We present observations of the power spectral anisotropy in wave-vector space of solar wind turbulence, and study how it evolves in interplanetary space with increasing heliocentric distance. For this purpose we use magnetic field measurements made by the Helios-2 spacecraft at three positions between 0.29 and 0.9 AU. To derive the power spectral density (PSD) in $(k_\parallel, k_\bot)$-space based on single-satellite measurements is a challenging task not yet accomplished previously. Here we derive the spectrum $\rm{PSD}_{\rm{2D}}$($\rm{k}_\parallel$, $\rm{k}_\bot$) from the spatial correlation function $\rm{CF}_{\rm{2D}}(r_\parallel, r_\bot)$ by a transformation according to the projection-slice theorem. We find the so constructed PSDs to be distributed in k-space mainly along a ridge that is more inclined toward the $\rm{k}_\bot$ than $\rm{k}_\parallel$ axis, a new result which probably indicates preferential cascading of turbulent energy along the $\rm{k}_\bot$ direction. Furthermore, this ridge of the distribution is found to gradually get closer to the $\rm{k}_\bot$ axis, as the outer scale length of the turbulence becomes larger while the solar wind flows further away from the Sun. In the vicinity of the $\rm{k}_\parallel$ axis, there appears a minor spectral component that probably corresponds to quasi-parallel Alfvénic fluctuations. Their relative contribution to the total spectral density tends to decrease with radial distance. These findings suggest that solar wind turbulence undergoes an anisotropic cascade transporting most of its magnetic energy towards larger $\rm{k}_\bot$, and that the anisotropy in the inertial range is radially developing further at scales that are relatively far from the ever increasing outer scale.
We develop a 1D solar-wind model that includes separate energy equations for the electrons and protons, proton temperature anisotropy, collisional and collisionless heat flux, and an analytical treatment of low-frequency, reflection-driven, Alfven-wave turbulence. To partition the turbulent heating between electron heating, parallel proton heating, and perpendicular proton heating, we employ results from the theories of linear wave damping and nonlinear stochastic heating. We account for mirror and oblique firehose instabilities by increasing the proton pitch-angle scattering rate when the pro…
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, Alfvénic, solar wind in the inner heliosphere. \textbf{The magnetic compressibility behaves as expected for kinetic Alfvénic turbulence below the ion scale.} A steepened transition range is found between the inertial and kinetic ranges in all directions with respect…
We propose a simple statistical model of three-dimensionally anisotropic, intermittent, strong Alfvénic turbulence, incorporating both critical balance and dynamic alignment. Our model is based on log-Poisson statistics for Elsasser-field increments along the magnetic field. We predict the scalings of Elsasser-field conditional two-point structure functions with point separations in all three directions in a coordinate system locally aligned with the direction of the magnetic field and of the fluctuating fields and obtain good agreement with numerical simulations. We also derive a scaling of t…
Some differences between theoretical, numerical and observational determinations of spectral slopes of solar wind turbulence are interpreted in the thermodynamical sense. Confirmations of turbulent Kolmogorov slopes in solar wind magnetic turbulence and magnetohydrodynamic simulations exhibit tiny differences. These are used to infer about entropy generation in the turbulent cascade and to infer about the anomalous turbulent collision frequency in the dissipative range as well as the average energy input in solar wind turbulence. Anomalous turbulent collision frequencies are obtained of the or…
Observations and modelling suggest that the fluctuations in magnetised plasmas exhibit scale-dependent anisotropy, with more energy in the fluctuations perpendicular to the mean magnetic field than in the parallel fluctuations and the anisotropy increasing at smaller scales. The scale-dependence of the anisotropy has not been studied in full-orbit simulations of particle transport in turbulent plasmas so far. In this paper, we construct a model of critically balanced turbulence, as suggested by \cite{GoSr1995}, and calculate energetic particle spatial diffusion coefficients using full-orbit si…
Single point spacecraft observations of the turbulent solar wind flow exhibit a characteristic nonaxisymmetric anisotropy that depends sensitively on the perpendicular power spectral exponent. For the first time we use this nonaxisymmetric anisotropy as a function of wave vector direction to test models of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. Using Ulysses magnetic field observations in the fast, quiet polar solar wind we find that the Goldreich-Sridhar model of MHD turbulence is not consistent with the observed anisotropy, whereas the observations are well reproduced by the "Slab + 2D" model…
We present the first measurement of the scale-dependent power anisotropy of Elsasser variables in imbalanced fast solar wind turbulence. The dominant Elsasser mode is isotropic at lower spacecraft frequencies but becomes increasingly anisotropic at higher frequencies. The sub-dominant mode is anisotropic throughout, but in a scale-independent way (at higher frequencies). There are two distinct subranges exhibiting different scalings within what is normally considered the inertial range. The low Alfven ratio and shallow scaling of the sub-dominant Elsasser mode suggest an interpretation of the …
The fourth orbit of Parker Solar Probe (PSP) reached heliocentric distances down to 27.9 Rs, allowing solar wind turbulence and acceleration mechanisms to be studied in situ closer to the Sun than previously possible. The turbulence properties were found to be significantly different in the inbound and outbound portions of PSP's fourth solar encounter, likely due to the proximity to the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) in the outbound period. Near the HCS, in the streamer belt wind, the turbulence was found to have lower amplitudes, higher magnetic compressibility, a steeper magnetic field spe…
Solar wind turbulence is anisotropic with respect to the mean magnetic field. Anisotropy leads to ambiguity when interpreting in-situ turbulence observations in the solar wind because an apparent change in the measurements could be due either to the change of intrinsic turbulence properties or to a simple change of the spacecraft sampling direction. We demonstrate the ambiguity using the spectral index and magnetic compressibility in the inertial range observed by the Parker Solar Probe during its first seven orbits ranging from 0.1 to 0.6 AU. To unravel the effects of the sampling direction, …
The observed sub-proton scale turbulence spectrum in the solar wind raises the question of how that turbulence originates. Observations of keV energetic electrons during solar quite-time suggest them as possible source of free energy to drive the turbulence. Using particle-in-cell simulations, we explore how free energy in energetic electrons, released by an electron two-stream instability drives Weibel-like electromagnetic waves that excite wave-wave interactions. Consequently, both kinetic Alfvénic and whistler waves are excited that evolve through inverse and forward magnetic energy cascade…
Chromospheric turbulence as a regulator of stellar wind mass flux
The University of Tokyo（东京大学）；KU Leuven（荷语鲁汶大学）；Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM（巴黎萨克雷大学、巴黎西岱大学、法国原子能和替代能源委员会、法国国家科学研究中心、天体物理学和分子相互作用实验室）；Nagoya University（名古屋大学）
We summarize our recent studies on the origin of solar wind kinetic scale turbulence and electron halo in the electron velocity distribution function. Increasing observations of nanoflares and microscopic type III radio bursts strongly suggest that nanoflares and accelerated electron beams are common in the corona. Based on particle-in-cell simulations, we show that both the core-halo feature and kinetic scale turbulence observed in the solar wind can be produced by the nonlinear evolution of electron two-stream instability driven by nanoflare accelerated electron beams. The energy exchange be…
Using the Parker Solar Probe data taken in the inner heliosphere, we investigate the power and spatial anisotropy of magnetic-field spectra at kinetic scales (i.e., around sub-ion scales) in solar wind turbulence in the inner heliosphere. We find that strong anisotropy of magnetic spectra occurs at kinetic scales with the strongest power in the perpendicular direction with respect to the local magnetic field (forming an angle theta_B with the mean flow velocity). The spectral index of magnetic spectra varies from -3.2 to -5.8 when the angle theta_B changes from 90 to 180 (or 0) deg, indicating…
Estimation of the energy cascade rate in the inertial range of solar wind turbulence has been done so far mostly within the incompressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) theory. Here, we go beyond that approximation to include plasma compressibility using a reduced form of a recently derived exact law for compressible, isothermal MHD turbulence. Using in-situ data from the THEMIS/ARTEMIS spacecraft in the fast and slow solar wind, we investigate in detail the role of the compressible fluctuations in modifying the energy cascade rate with respect to the prediction of the incompressible MHD model. I…
A robust empirical relationship between speed and turbulence energy in the near-Earth solar wind
University of Delaware（特拉华大学）；NASA Goddard Space Flight Center（美国国家航空航天局戈达德太空飞行中心）；University of Maryland（马里兰大学）；Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）；Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences（奥地利科学院空间研究所）
Turbulence is a chaotic flow regime filled by irregular flows. The dissipation of turbulence is a fundamental problem in the realm of physics. Theoretically, dissipation cannot be ultimately achieved without collisions, and so how turbulent kinetic energy is dissipated in the nearly collisionless solar wind is a challenging problem. Wave particle interactions and magnetic reconnection are two possible dissipation mechanisms, but which mechanism dominates is still a controversial topic. Here we analyze the dissipation region scaling around a solar wind magnetic reconnection region. We find that…
Particle velocity distributions measured in the weakly collisional solar wind are frequently found to be non-Maxwellian, but how these non-Maxwellian distributions impact the physics of plasma turbulence in the solar wind remains unanswered. Using numerical solutions of the linear dispersion relation for a collisionless plasma with a bi-Maxwellian proton velocity distribution, we present a unified framework for the four proton temperature anisotropy instabilities, identifying the associated stable eigenmodes, highlighting the unstable region of wavevector space, and presenting the properties o…
A key prediction of turbulence theories is frame-invariance, and in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, axisymmetry of fluctuations with respect to the background magnetic field. Paradoxically the power in fluctuations in the turbulent solar wind are observed to be ordered with respect to the bulk macroscopic flow as well as the background magnetic field. Here, non- axisymmetry across the inertial and dissipation ranges is quantified using in-situ observations from Cluster. The observed inertial range non- axisymmetry is reproduced by a 'fly through' sampling of a Direct Numerical Simulation…
The measure of the third-order structure function, Y, is employed in the solar wind to compute the cascade rate of turbulence. In the absence of a mean field B0=0, Y is expected to be isotropic (radial) and independent of the direction of increments, so its measure yields directly the cascade rate. For turbulence with mean field, as in the solar wind, Y is expected to become more two dimensional (2D), that is, to have larger perpendicular components, loosing the above simple symmetry. To get the cascade rate one should compute the flux of Y, which is not feasible with single-spacecraft data, t…
We study incompressible imbalanced magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in the presence of background velocity shears. Using scaling arguments, we show that the turbulent cascade is significantly accelerated when the background velocity shear is stronger than the velocity shears in the subdominant Alfv% én waves at the injection scale. The spectral transport is then controlled by the background shear rather than the turbulent shears and the Tchen spectrum with spectral index $-1$ is formed. This spectrum extends from the injection scale to the scale of the spectral break where the subdominant wave s…
We present unique {and additional} observational evidence for the self-generation of small-scale coherent magnetic flux rope structures in the solar wind. Such structures with durations between 9 and 361 minutes are identified from Wind in-situ spacecraft measurements through the Grad-Shafranov (GS) reconstruction approach. The event occurrence counts are on the order of 3,500 per year on average and have a clear solar cycle dependence. We build a database of small-scale magnetic flux ropes from twenty-year worth of Wind spacecraft data. We show a power-law distribution of the wall-to-wall tim…
Magnetohydronamic turbulence is believed to play a crucial role in heating the laboratorial, space, and astrophysical plasmas. However, the precise connection between the turbulent fluctuations and the particle kinetics has not yet been established. Here we present clear evidence of plasma turbulence heating based on diagnosed wave features and proton velocity distributions from solar wind measurements by the Wind spacecraft. For the first time, we can report the simultaneous observation of counter-propagating magnetohydrodynamic waves in the solar wind turbulence. Different from the tradition…
Recent modelling of solar energetic particles (SEPs) propagation through the heliospheric turbulence, also discussed in this workshop, has investigated the role of the pitch-angle scattering and the perpendicular transport in spreading particles in heliolongitude, as shown by multi-spacecraft measurements (STEREO A/B, ACE, SOHO, etc.) at 1 AU in various energy ranges. In some events the first-order pitch-angle anisotropy of the particles distribution is not-negligible. We calculate the average perpendicular displacement due to the gradient/curvature drift in an inhomogeneous turbulence account…
Based on global conservation principles, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) relaxation theory predicts the existence of several equilibria, such as the Taylor state or global dynamic alignment. These states are generally viewed as very long-time and large-scale equilibria, which emerge only after the termination of the turbulent cascade. As suggested by hydrodynamics and by recent MHD numerical simulations, relaxation processes can occur during the turbulent cascade that will manifest themselves as local patches of equilibrium-like configurations. Using multi-spacecraft analysis techniques in conjuncti…
We measure the power and spectral index anisotropy of high speed solar wind turbulence from scales larger than the outer scale down to the ion gyroscale, thus covering the entire inertial range. We show that the power and spectral indices at the outer scale of turbulence are approximately isotropic. The turbulent cascade causes the power anisotropy at smaller scales manifested by anisotropic scalings of the spectrum: close to k^{-5/3} across and k^{-2} along the local magnetic field, consistent with a critically balanced Alfvenic turbulence. By using data at different radial distances from the…
The field-aligned anisotropy of the solar wind turbulence, which is quantified by the ratio of the parallel to the perpendicular correlation (and Taylor) length scales, is determined by simultaneous two-point correlation measurements during the time period 2001-2017. Our results show that the correlation scale along the magnetic field is the largest, and the correlation scale in the field-perpendicular directions is the smallest, at both solar maximum and solar minimum. However, the Taylor scale reveals inconsistent results for different stages of the solar cycles. During the years 2001-2004, …
The nature of subproton scale fluctuations in the solar wind is an open question, partly because two similar types of electromagnetic turbulence can occur: kinetic Alfven turbulence and whistler turbulence. These two possibilities, however, have one key qualitative difference: whistler turbulence, unlike kinetic Alfven turbulence, has negligible power in density fluctuations. In this Letter, we present new observational data, as well as analytical and numerical results, to investigate this difference. The results show, for the first time, that the fluctuations well below the proton scale are p…
We revisit the question of how the unstable scattering of interstellar pickup ions (PUIs) may drive turbulence in the outer solar wind, and why the energy released into fluctuations by this scattering appears to be significantly less than the standard bispherical prediction. We suggest that energization of the newly picked-up ions by the ambient turbulence during the scattering process can result in a more spherical distribution of PUIs, and reduce the generated fluctuation energy to a level consistent with the observations of turbulent intensities and core solar wind heating. This scenario im…
When magnetohydrodynamic turbulence evolves in the presence of a large-scale mean magnetic field, an anisotropy develops relative to that preferred direction. The well-known tendency is to develop stronger gradients perpendicular to the magnetic field, relative to the direction along the field. This anisotropy of the spectrum is deeply connected with anisotropy of estimated timescales for dynamical processes, and requires reconsideration of basic issues such as scale locality and spectral transfer. Here analysis of high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of unforced magnetohydrodynamic t…
We study the anisotropy of II-order structure functions defined in a frame attached to the local mean field in three-dimensional (3D) direct numerical simulations of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, including or not the solar wind expansion. We simulate spacecraft flybys through the numerical domain by taking increments along the radial (wind) direction that forms an angle of $45^o$ with the ambient magnetic field. We find that only when expansion is taken into account, do the synthetic observations match the 3D anisotropy observed in the solar wind, including the change of anisotropy with scal…
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 density fluctuations in the solar wind place an upper limit on the amplitude of kinetic Alfven waves and hence an upper limit on the rate at which the solar wind can be heated by low-frequency, Alfvenic turbulence. We evaluate this upper limit for both coronal holes at 5 solar radii and in the near-Earth solar wind. At both radii, the upper limit we find is …
Based on in-situ measurements by Wind spacecraft from 2005 to 2015, this letter reports for the first time a clearly scale-dependent connection between proton temperatures and the turbulence in the solar wind. A statistical analysis of proton-scale turbulence shows that increasing helicity magnitudes correspond to steeper magnetic energy spectra. In particular, there exists a positive power-law correlation (with a slope $\sim 0.4$) between the proton perpendicular temperature and the turbulent magnetic energy at scales $0.3 \lesssim kρ_p \lesssim 1$, with $k$ being the wavenumber and $ρ_p$ bei…
We explore the multi-faceted important features of turbulence (e.g., anisotropy, dispersion, diffusion) in the three-dimensional (3D) wavenumber domain ($k_\parallel$, $k_{\perp,1}$, $k_{\perp,2}$), by employing the k-filtering technique to the high-quality measurements of fields and particles from the MMS multi-spacecraft constellation. We compute the 3D power spectral densities (PSDs) of magnetic and electric fluctuations (marked as $\rm{PSD}(δ\mathbf{B}(\mathbf{k}))$ and $\rm{PSD}(δ\mathbf{E}'_{\langle\mathbf{v}_\mathrm{i}\rangle}(\mathbf{k}))$), both of which show a prominent spectral anis…
The field theoretic renormalization group and operator product expansion are applied to the Kazantsev--Kraichnan kinematic model for the magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. The anomalous scaling emerges as a consequence of the existence of certain composite fields ("operators") with negative dimensions. The anomalous exponents for the correlation functions of arbitrary order are calculated in the two-loop approximation (second order of the renormalization-group expansion), including the anisotropic sectors. The anomalous scaling and the hierarchy of anisotropic contributions become stronger due to…
We measure the local anisotropy of numerically simulated strong Alfvénic turbulence with respect to two local, physically relevant directions: along the local mean magnetic field and along the local direction of one of the fluctuating Elsasser fields. We find significant scaling anisotropy with respect to both these directions: the fluctuations are "ribbon-like" --- statistically, they are elongated along both the mean magnetic field and the fluctuating field. The latter form of anisotropy is due to scale-dependent alignment of the fluctuating fields. The intermittent scalings of the $n$th-ord…
Knowing the lengthscales at which turbulent fluctuations dissipate is key to understanding the nature of weakly compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. We use radio wavelength interferometric imaging observations which measure the extent to which distant cosmic sources observed against the inner solar wind are scatter-broadened. We interpret these observations to determine that the dissipation scales of solar wind density turbulence at heliocentric distances of 2.5 -- 20.27 $R_{\odot}$ range from $\approx$ 13500 to 520 m. Our estimates from $\approx$ 10--20 $R_{\odot}$ suggest that the di…
How the solar wind is accelerated to its supersonic speed is intimately related to how it is heated. Mechanisms based on ion-cyclotron resonance have been successful in explaining a large number of observations, those concerning the significant ion temperature anisotropy above coronal holes in particular. However, they suffer from the inconsistency with turbulence theory which says that the turbulent cascade in a low-beta medium like the solar corona should proceed in the perpendicular rather than the parallel direction, meaning that there is little energy in the ion gyro-frequency range for i…
Using a three-dimensional compressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation, we have reproduced the fast solar wind in a direct and self-consistent manner, based on the wave/turbulence driven scenario. As a natural consequence of Alfvenic perturbations at its base, highly compressional and turbulent fluctuations are generated, leading to heating and acceleration of the solar wind. The analysis of power spectra and structure functions reveals that the turbulence is characterized by its imbalanced (in the sense of outward Alfvenic fluctuations) and anisotropic nature. The density fluctuation ori…
The magnetorotational instability is thought to play an important role in enabling accretion in sufficiently ionized astrophysical disks. The rate at which MRI-driven turbulence transports angular momentum is related to both the strength of the amplitudes of the fluctuations on various scales and the degree of anisotropy of the underlying turbulence. This has motivated several studies of the distribution of turbulent power in spectral space. In this paper, we investigate the anisotropic nature of MRI-driven turbulence using a pseudo-spectral code and introduce novel ways to robustly characteri…
Motivated by the upcoming Solar Orbiter and Solar Probe Plus missions, qualitative and quantitative predictions are made for the effects of the violation of the Taylor hypothesis on the magnetic energy frequency spectrum measured in the near-Sun environment. The synthetic spacecraft data method is used to predict observational signatures of the violation for critically balanced Alfvénic turbulence or parallel fast/whistler turbulence. The violation of the Taylor hypothesis can occur in the slow flow regime, leading to a shift of the entire spectrum to higher frequencies, or in the dispersive r…
The solar wind is a magnetized and turbulent plasma. Its turbulence is often dominated by Alfvénic fluctuations and often deemed as nearly incompressible far away from the Sun, as shown by in-situ measurements near 1AU. However, for solar wind closer to the Sun, the plasma $β$ decreases (often lower than unity) while the turbulent Mach number $M_t$ increases (can approach unity, e.g., transonic fluctuations). These conditions could produce significantly more compressible effects, characterized by enhanced density fluctuations, as seen by several space missions. In this paper, a series of 3D MH…
Magnetic turbulence in the solar wind is treated from the point of view of electrodynamics. This can be done based on the use of Poynting's theorem attributing all turbulent dynamics to the spectrum of turbulent conductivity. For two directions of propagation of the turbulent fluctuations of the electromagnetic field with respect to the mean plus external magnetic fields an expression is constructed for the spectrum of turbulent dissipation. Use of solar wind observations of electromagnetic power spectral densities in the inertial subrange then allows determination of the conductivity spectrum…
A long-lasting debate in space plasma physics concerns the nature of subproton-scale fluctuations in solar wind (SW) turbulence. Over the past decade, a series of theoretical and observational studies were presented in favor of either kinetic Alfvén wave (KAW) or whistler turbulence. Here, we investigate numerically the nature of the subproton-scale turbulent cascade for typical SW parameters by means of unprecedented high-resolution simulations of forced hybrid-kinetic turbulence in two real-space and three velocity-space dimensions. Our analysis suggests that small-scale turbulence in this m…
The nature of solar wind turbulence at large scale is rather well understood in the theoretical framework of magnetohydrodynamics. The situation is quite different at sub-proton scales where the magnetic energy spectrum measured by different spacecrafts does not fit with the classical turbulence predictions: a power law index close to $-8/3$ is generally reported which is far from the predictions of strong and wave turbulence, $-7/3$ and $-5/2$ respectively. This discrepancy is considered as a major problem for solar wind turbulence. Here, we show with a nonlinear diffusion model of weak kinet…
We study the anisotropy with respect to the local magnetic field of turbulent magnetic fluctuations at magnetofluid scales in the solar wind. Previous measurements in the fast solar wind obtained axisymmetric anisotropy, despite that the analysis method allows nonaxisymmetric structures. These results are probably contaminated by the wind expansion that introduces another symmetry axis, namely, the radial direction, as indicated by recent numerical simulations. These simulations also show that while the expansion is strong, the principal fluctuations are in the plane perpendicular to the radia…
Simulation results from a global magnetohydrodynamic model of the solar corona and solar wind are compared with Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observations during its first five orbits. The fully three-dimensional model is based on Reynolds-averaged mean-flow equations coupled with turbulence transport equations. The model includes the effects of electron heat conduction, Coulomb collisions, turbulent Reynolds stresses, and heating of protons and electrons via a turbulent cascade. Turbulence transport equations for average turbulence energy, cross helicity, and correlation length are solved concurre…
By searching through more than 10 satellite-years of THEMIS and Cluster data, three reliable examples of parallel electric field turbulence in the undisturbed solar wind have been found. The perpendicular and parallel electric field spectra in these examples have similar shapes and amplitudes, even at large scales (frequencies below the ion gyroscale) where Alfvenic turbulence with no parallel electric field component is thought to dominate. The spectra of the parallel electric field fluctuations are power laws with exponents near -5/3 below the ion scales (~ 0.1 Hz), and with a flattening of …
The effects of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) on the evolution of Alfvénic turbulence in the solar wind are studied using MHD simulations incorporating the expanding-box-model (EBM). The simulations show that near the HCS, the Alfvénicity of the turbulence decreases as manifested by lower normalized cross helicity and larger excess of magnetic energy. The numerical results are supported by a superposed-epoch analysis using OMNI data, which shows that the normalized cross helicity decreases inside the plasma sheet surrounding HCS, and the excess of magnetic energy is significantly enhance…
Turbulence in space plasmas usually exhibits two regimes separated by a spectral break that divides the so called inertial and kinetic ranges. Large scale magnetic fluctuations are dominated by non-linear MHD wave-wave interactions following a -5/3 or -2 slope power-law spectrum. After the break, at scales in which kinetic effects take place, the magnetic spectrum follows a steeper power-law $k^{-α}$ shape given by a spectral index $α> 5/3$. Despite its ubiquitousness, the possible effects of a turbulent background spectrum in the quasilinear relaxation of solar wind temperatures are usually n…
A model-independent first-principle first-order investigation of the shape of turbulent density-power spectra in the ion-inertial range of the solar wind at 1 AU is presented. De-magnetised ions in the ion-inertial range of quasi-neutral plasmas respond to Kolmogorov (K) or Iroshnikov-Kraichnan (IK) inertial-range velocity turbulence power spectra via the spectrum of the velocity-turbulence-related random-mean-square induction-electric field. Maintenance of electrical quasi-neutrality by the ions causes deformations in the power spectral density of the turbulent density fluctuations. Kolmogoro…
Characterization of compressible fluctuations in solar wind streams dominated by balanced and imbalanced turbulence: Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter and Wind observations
The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）
研究通过分析Wind、Solar Orbiter和Parker Solar Probe的数据，探讨太阳风中压缩性波动的尺度依赖性和与等离子体β值及径向距离的关系，揭示压缩性波动在太阳风加速和加热中的作用。
Previous formulations of heating and transport associated with strong magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence are generalized to incorporate separate internal energy equations for electrons and protons. Electron heat conduction is included. Energy is supplied by turbulent heating that affects both electrons and protons, and is exchanged between them via collisions. Comparison to available Ulysses data shows that a reasonable accounting for the data is provided when (i) the energy exchange timescale is very long and (ii) the deposition of heat due to turbulence is divided, with 60% going to proton…
We present a measurement of the spectral index of density fluctuations between ion and electron scales in solar wind turbulence using the EFI instrument on the ARTEMIS spacecraft. The mean spectral index at 1 AU was found to be -2.75 +/- 0.06, steeper than predictions for pure whistler or kinetic Alfven wave turbulence, but consistent with previous magnetic field measurements. The steep spectra are also consistent with expectations of increased intermittency or damping of some of the turbulent energy over this range of scales. Neither the spectral index nor the flattening of the density spectr…
