The Temperature Anisotropy and Helium Abundance Features of Alfvénic Slow Solar Wind Observed by Parker Solar Probe, Helios, and Wind Missions
Jia Huang, Davin E. Larson, Tamar Ervin, Mingzhe Liu, Oscar Ortiz, Mihailo M. Martinovic, Zhenguang Huang, Alexandros Chasapis, Xiangning Chu, B. L. Alterman, Z… 展开作者
Jia Huang, Davin E. Larson, Tamar Ervin, Mingzhe Liu, Oscar Ortiz, Mihailo M. Martinovic, Zhenguang Huang, Alexandros Chasapis, Xiangning Chu, B. L. Alterman, Zesen Huang, Wenwen Wei, J. L. Verniero, Lan K. Jian, Adam Szabo, Orlando Romeo, Ali Rahmati, Roberto Livi, Phyllis Whittlesey, Samer T. Alnussirat, Justin C. Kasper, Michael Stevens, Stuart D. Bale
Slow solar wind is typically characterized as having low Alfvénicity, but the occasional occurrence of highly Alfvénic slow solar wind (HASSW) raises questions about its source regions and evolution. In this work, we conduct a statistical analysis of temperature anisotropy and helium abundance in HASSW using data from PSP within 0.25 AU, Helios between 0.3 AU and 1 AU, and Wind near 1 AU. Our findings reveal that HASSW is prevalent close to the Sun, with PSP observations displaying a distinct ``U-shaped" Alfvénicity distribution with respect to increasing solar wind speed, unlike the monotonic increase trend seen in Helios and Wind data. This highlights a previously unreported population of unusually low speed HASSW, which is found in both sub-Alfvénic and super-Alfvénic regimes. The observed decreasing overlap in temperature anisotropy between HASSW and fast solar wind (FSW) with increasing heliocentric distance suggests different underlying heating processes. Additionally, HASSW exhibits two distinct helium abundance populations, particularly evident in PSP data, with generally higher helium abundance compared to less Alfvénic slow solar wind. Moreover, the decreasing overlap in temperature anisotropy versus helium abundance distributions between HASSW and FSW with decreasing radial distance implies that not all HASSW originates from the same source region as FSW.
The mixture/interaction of anti-sunward-propagating Alfvénic fluctuations (AFs) and sunward-propagating Alfvénic fluctuations (SAFs) is believed to result in the decrease of the Alfvénicity of solar wind fluctuations with increasing heliocentric distance. However, SAFs are rarely observed at 1 au and solar wind AFs are found to be generally outward. Using the measurements from Voyager 2 and Wind, we perform a statistical survey of SAFs in the heliosphere inside 6 au. We first report two SAF events observed by Voyager 2. One is in the anti-sunward magnetic sector with a strong positive correlat…
We make use of the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) data to explore the nature of solar wind turbulence focusing on the Alfvénic character and power spectra of the fluctuations and their dependence on distance and context (i.e. large scale solar wind properties), aiming to understand the role that different effects such as source properties, solar wind expansion, stream interaction might play in determining the turbulent state. We carry out a statistical survey of the data from the first five orbits of PSP with a focus on how the fluctuation properties at the large, MHD scales, vary with different sol…
Using one-dimensional hybrid expanding box model we investigate properties of the solar wind in the outer heliosphere. We assume a proton-electron plasma with a strictly transverse ambient magnetic field and, beside the expansion, we take into account influence of a continuous injection of cold pick-up protons through the charge-exchange process between the solar wind protons and hydrogen of interstellar origin. The injected cold pick-up protons form a ring distribution function that rapidly becomes unstable and generate Alfvén cyclotron waves. The Alfvén cyclotron waves scatter pick-up proton…
In its first encounter at solar distances as close as r = 0.16AU, Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observed numerous local reversals, or inversions, in the heliospheric magnetic field (HMF), which were accompanied by large spikes in solar wind speed. Both solar and in situ mechanisms have been suggested to explain the existence of HMF inversions in general. Previous work using Helios 1, covering 0.3-1AU, observed inverted HMF to become more common with increasing r, suggesting that some heliospheric driving process creates or amplifies inversions. This study expands upon these findings, by analysing i…
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…
The nature of the plasma wave modes around the ion kinetic scales in highly Alfvénic slow solar wind turbulence is investigated using data from the NASA's Parker Solar Probe taken in the inner heliosphere, at 0.18 Astronomical Unit (AU) from the sun. The joint distribution of the normalized reduced magnetic helicity $σ_m (θ_{RB}, τ)$ is obtained, where $θ_{RB}$ is the angle between the local mean magnetic field and the radial direction and $τ$ is the temporal scale. Two populations around ion scales are identified: the first population has $σ_m (θ_{RB}, τ) < 0$ for frequencies (in the spacecra…
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…
Differential flows among different ion species are often observed in the solar wind, and such ion differential flows can provide the free energy to drive Alfvén/ion-cyclotron and fast-magnetosonic/whistler instabilities. Previous works mainly focused on ion beam instability under the parameters representative of the solar wind nearby 1 au. In this paper we further study proton beam instability using the radial models of the magnetic field and plasma parameters in the inner heliosphere. We explore a comprehensive distribution of proton beam instability as functions of the heliocentric distance …
Robustly identifying the solar sources of individual packets of solar wind measured in interplanetary space remains an open problem. We set out to see if this problem is easier to tackle using solar wind measurements closer to the Sun than 1 AU, where the mixing and dynamical interaction of different solar wind streams is reduced. Using measurements from the Helios mission, we examined how the proton core temperature anisotropy and cross helicity varied with distance. At 0.3 AU there are two clearly separated anisotropic and isotropic populations of solar wind, that are not distinguishable at …
We perform a validation study of the latest version of the Alfvén Wave Solar atmosphere Model (AWSoM) within the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF). To do so, we compare the simulation results of the model with a comprehensive suite of observations for Carrington rotations representative of the solar minimum conditions extending from the solar corona to the heliosphere up to the Earth. In the low corona ($r < 1.25$ \Rs), we compare with EUV images from both STEREO-A/EUVI and SDO/AIA and to three-dimensional (3-D) tomographic reconstructions of the electron temperature and density based on…
One of the key challenges in solar and heliospheric physics is to understand the acceleration of the solar wind. As a super-sonic, super-Alfvénic plasma flow, the solar wind carries mass, momentum, energy, and angular momentum from the Sun into interplanetary space. We present a framework based on two-fluid magnetohydrodynamics to estimate the flux of these quantities based on spacecraft data independent of the heliocentric distance of the location of measurement. Applying this method to the Ulysses dataset allows us to study the dependence of these fluxes on heliolatitude and solar cycle. The…
Alfvénic fluctuations in the solar wind display many properties reflecting an ongoing nonlinear cascade, e.g. a well-defined spectrum in frequency, together with some characteristics more commonly associated with the linear propagation of waves from the Sun, such as the variation of fluctuation amplitude with distance, dominated by solar wind expansion effects. Therefore both nonlinearities and expansion must be included simultaneously in any successful model of solar wind turbulence evolution. Because of the disparate spatial scales involved, direct numerical simulations of turbulence in the …
Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter data are used to investigate the radial evolution of magnetic turbulence between $0.06 ~ \lesssim R ~\lesssim 1$ au. The spectrum is studied as a function of scale, normalized to the ion inertial scale $d_{i}$. In the vicinity of the Sun, the inertial range is limited to a narrow range of scales and exhibits a power-law exponent of, $α_{B} = -3/2$, independent of plasma parameters. The inertial range grows with distance, progressively extending to larger spatial scales, while steepening towards a $α_{B} =-5/3$ scaling. It is observed that spectra for interv…
We consider the radial evolution of perpendicular ion heating due to the violation of magnetic moment conservation caused by Alfven and kinetic Alfven wave turbulence. This process, referred to as stochastic heating, can be quantified by the ratio between the average velocity fluctuations at the ion gyroradius and the perpendicular ion thermal speed $ε\equiv δv / v_{t\perp}$. Using 17 years of Helios observations, we constrain how much energy could be dissipated by this mechanism between 0.29 and 0.98 au. We find that stochastic heating likely operates throughout the entire inner heliosphere, …
The first two orbits of the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) spacecraft have enabled the first in situ measurements of the solar wind down to a heliocentric distance of 0.17 au (or 36 Rs). 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-m…
The solar wind shows periods of highly Alfvénic activity, where velocity fluctuations and magnetic fluctuations are aligned or anti-aligned with each other. It is generally agreed that solar wind plasma velocity and magnetic field fluctuations observed by Parker Solar Probe (PSP) during the first encounter are mostly highly Alfvénic. However, quantitative measures of Alfvénicity are needed to understand how the characterization of these fluctuations compares with standard measures from prior missions in the inner and outer heliosphere, in fast wind and slow wind, and at high and low latitudes.…
We present the multifractal study of the intermittency of the magnetic field turbulence in the fast and slow solar wind beyond the ecliptic plane during two solar minima (1997-1998, 2007-2008) and solar maximum (1999-2001). More precisely, we consider 126 time intervals of Ulysses magnetic field measurements, obtain the multifractal spectra, and examine the degree of multifractality as the measure of intermittency in the MHD range of scales, for a wide range of heliocentric distances and heliolatitudes. The results show a slow decrease of intermittency with the radial distance, which is more s…
Averaging Effects on the Solar Wind Alfven Mach Number: Implications for Switchbacks and Alfven Transition
University of Delaware（特拉华大学）；Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）；University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；Mahidol University（玛希隆大学）；University of Orléans（奥尔良大学）；Kasetsart University（泰国农业大学）；NASA Goddard Space Flight Center（美国宇航局戈达德太空飞行中心）
Effects of Alfvénicity on the Compressible Energy Cascade in Magnetohydrodynamic Solar Wind Turbulence: Evidence from Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, and WIND observations
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales（布宜诺斯艾利斯大学，理学院）；CONICET – Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto de Física Interdisciplinaria y Aplicada (INFINA)（阿根廷国家科学研究委员会–布宜诺斯艾利斯大学，交叉与应用物理研究所）；Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校，物理系）；Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校，天文学系）；Planetary Magnetospheres Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center（NASA戈达德太空飞行中心，行星磁层实验室）
Alfvén waves are primal and pervasive in space plasmas and significantly contributes to microscale fluctuations in the solar wind and some heliospheric processes. Here, we demonstrate the first observable distinct feature of Alfvén wave while propagating from magnetic cloud to trailing solar wind. The Walén test is used to confirm their presence in selected regions. The amplitude ratio of inward to outward Alfvén waves is employed to establish their flow direction. The dominant inward flow is observed in magnetic cloud whereas trailing solar wind shows the dominant outward flow of Alfvén waves…
Measured energy exchange in coronal hole solar wind from its solar origins to the heliosphere
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado Boulder（科罗拉多大学博尔德分校大气与空间物理实验室）；Southwest Research Institute（西南研究所）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Florence（佛罗伦萨大学物理与天文系）；Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan（密歇根大学气候与空间科学与工程）；Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校物理系）；Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校空间科学实验室）；The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London（帝国理工学院布莱克特实验室）；Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London（伦敦大学学院穆拉德空间科学实验室）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa（爱荷华大学物理与天文系）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；University of Leicester（莱斯特大学）；Space Exploration Sector, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室太空探索部）；Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室）；School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics, Northumbria University（诺森比亚大学工程、物理与数学学院）；ESTEC, ESA（欧洲空间局欧洲空间研究与技术中心）；Predictive Science Inc.（预测科学公司）；Imperial College London（帝国理工学院）
In the lower solar coronal regions where the magnetic field is dominant, the Alfven speed is much higher than the wind speed. In contrast, the near-Earth solar wind is strongly super-Alfvenic, i.e., the wind speed greatly exceeds the Alfven speed. The transition between these regimes is classically described as the "Alfven point" but may in fact occur in a distributed Alfven critical region. NASA's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission has entered this region, as it follows a series of orbits that gradually approach more closely to the sun. During its 8th and 9th solar encounters, at a distance of …
In this letter we report observations of magnetic switchback (SB) features near 1 au using data from the \emph{Wind} spacecraft. These features appear to be strikingly similar to the ones observed by the Parker Solar Probe mission (PSP) closer to the Sun: namely, one-sided spikes (or enhancements) in the solar-wind bulk speed $V$ that correlate/anti-correlate with the spikes seen in the radial-field component $B_R$. In the solar-wind streams that we analyzed, these specific SB features near 1 au are associated with large-amplitude Alfvénic oscillations that propagate outward from the sun along…
This Letter addresses the first Solar Orbiter (SO) -- Parker Solar Probe (PSP) quadrature, occurring on January 18, 2021, to investigate the evolution of solar wind from the extended corona to the inner heliosphere. Assuming ballistic propagation, the same plasma volume observed remotely in corona at altitudes between 3.5 and 6.3 solar radii above the solar limb with the Metis coronagraph on SO can be tracked to PSP, orbiting at 0.1 au, thus allowing the local properties of the solar wind to be linked to the coronal source region from where it originated. Thanks to the close approach of PSP to…
Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observations during its first encounter at 35.7 $R_\odot$ have shown the presence of magnetic field lines which are strongly perturbed to the point that they produce local inversions of the radial magnetic field, known as switchbacks. Their counterparts in the solar wind velocity field are local enhancements in the radial speed, or jets, displaying (in all components) the velocity-magnetic field correlation typical of large amplitude Alfvén waves propagating away from the Sun. Switchbacks and radial jets have previously been observed over a wide range of heliocentric d…
Dynamics of the Upwind Heliosphere Due to Data-Driven, Solar Wind and Magnetic Field Variations and Implications for Wave Propagation into the Very Local Interstellar Medium
We perform and analyze results of a global magnetohydrodyanmic (MHD) simulation of the fast coronal mass ejection (CME) that occurred on 2011 March 7. The simulation is made using the newly developed Alfvén Wave Solar Model (AWSoM), which describes the background solar wind starting from the upper chromosphere and extends to 24 R$_{\odot}$. Coupling AWSoM to an inner heliosphere (IH) model with the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) extends the total domain beyond the orbit of Earth. Physical processes included in the model are multi-species thermodynamics, electron heat conduction (both …
We examine Alfvén Wave Solar atmosphere Model (AWSoM) predictions of the first Parker Solar Probe (PSP) encounter. We focus on the 12-day closest approach centered on the 1st perihelion. AWSoM (van der Holst et al., 2014) allows us to interpret the PSP data in the context of coronal heating via Alfvén wave turbulence. The coronal heating and acceleration is addressed via outward-propagating low-frequency Alfvén waves that are partially reflected by Alfvén speed gradients. The nonlinear interaction of these counter-propagating waves results in a turbulent energy cascade. To apportion the wave d…
Alfvén wave collisions are the primary building blocks of the non-relativistic turbulence that permeates the heliosphere and low-to-moderate energy astrophysical systems. However, many astrophysical systems such as gamma-ray bursts, pulsar and magnetar magnetospheres, and active galactic nuclei have relativistic flows or energy densities. To better understand these high energy systems, we derive reduced relativistic MHD equations and employ them to examine weak Alfvénic turbulence, dominated by three-wave interactions, in reduced relativistic magnetohydrodynamics, including the force-free, inf…
Magnetic switchbacks are rapid high amplitude reversals of the radial magnetic field in the solar wind that do not involve a heliospheric current sheet crossing. First seen sporadically in the seventies in Mariner and Helios data, switchbacks were later observed by the Ulysses spacecraft beyond 1 au and have been recently identified as a typical component of solar wind fluctuations in the inner heliosphere by the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft. Here we provide a simple yet predictive theory for the formation of these magnetic reversals: the switchbacks are produced by the shear of circularly po…
\textit{Parker Solar Probe} has shown the ubiquitous presence of strong magnetic field deflections, namely switchbacks, during its first perihelion where it was embedded in a highly Alfvénic slow stream. Here, we study the turbulent magnetic fluctuations around ion scales in three intervals characterized by a different switchback activity, identified by the behaviour of the magnetic field radial component, $B_r$. \textit{Quiet} ($B_r$ does not show significant fluctuations), \textit{weak} ($B_r$ has strong fluctuations but no reversals) and \textit{strong} ($B_r$ has full reversals) periods sh…
In this paper, weak turbulence theory is used to investigate the nonlinear evolution of the parametric instability in 3D low-$β$ plasmas at wavelengths much greater than the ion inertial length under the assumption that slow magnetosonic waves are strongly damped. It is shown analytically that the parametric instability leads to an inverse cascade of Alfvén wave quanta, and several exact solutions to the wave kinetic equations are presented. The main results of the paper concern the parametric decay of Alfvén waves that initially satisfy $e^+ \gg e^-$, where $e^+$ and $e^-$ are the frequency (…
We study the propagation, reflection, and turbulent dissipation of Alfven waves in coronal holes and the solar wind. We start with the Heinemann-Olbert equations, which describe non-compressive magnetohydrodynamic fluctuations in an inhomogeneous medium with a background flow parallel to the background magnetic field. Following the approach of Dmitruk et al, we model the nonlinear terms in these equations using a simple phenomenology for the cascade and dissipation of wave energy, and assume that there is much more energy in waves propagating away from the Sun than waves propagating towards th…
Observations from Parker Solar Probe's first five orbits are used to investigate the helioradial evolution of probability density functions (PDFs) of fluctuations of magnetic field components, between \(\sim 28\) - 200 \(\rs\). Transformation of the magnetic field vector to a local mean-field coordinate system permits examination of anisotropy relative to the mean magnetic field direction. Attention is given to effects of averaging-interval size. It is found that PDFs of the perpendicular fluctuations are well approximated by a Gaussian function, with the parallel fluctuations less so: kurtose…
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…
The solar corona and young solar wind may be characterized by critical surfaces -- the sonic, Alfvén, and first plasma-$β$ unity surfaces -- that demarcate regions where the solar wind flow undergoes certain crucial transformations. Global numerical simulations and remote sensing observations offer a natural mode for the study of these surfaces at large scales, thus providing valuable context for the high-resolution in-situ measurements expected from the soon-to-be-launched Parker Solar Probe (PSP). The present study utilizes global three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the sola…
The velocity of alpha particles relative to protons can vary depending on the solar wind type and distance from the Sun (Marsch 2012). Measurements from the previous spacecraft provided the alpha-proton's differential velocities down to 0.3 au. Parker Solar Probe (PSP) now enables insights into differential flows of newly accelerated solar wind closer to the Sun for the first time. Here, we study the difference between proton and alpha bulk velocities near PSP perihelia of Encounters 3-7 when the core solar wind is in the field of view of the Solar Probe Analyzer for Ions (SPAN-I) instrument. …
A growing body of evidence suggests that the solar wind is powered to a large extent by an Alfvén-wave (AW) energy flux. AWs energize the solar wind via two mechanisms: heating and work. We use high-resolution direct numerical simulations of reflection-driven AW turbulence (RDAWT) in a fast-solar-wind stream emanating from a coronal hole to investigate both mechanisms. In particular, we compute the fraction of the AW power at the coronal base ($P_{\rm AWb}$) that is transferred to solar-wind particles via heating between the coronal base and heliocentric distance $r$, which we denote $χ_{\rm H…
The large scale features of the solar wind are examined in order to predict small scale features of turbulence in unexplored regions of the heliosphere. The strategy is to examine how system size, or effective Reynolds number, varies, and then how this quantity influences observable statistical properties, including intermittency properties of solar wind turbulence. The expectation based on similar hydrodynamics scalings, is that the kurtosis, of the small scale magnetic field increments, will increase with increasing Reynolds number. Simple theoretical arguments as well as Voyager observation…
