CONSTRAINING LOW-FREQUENCY ALFVENIC TURBULENCE IN THE SOLAR WIND USING DENSITY-FLUCTUATION MEASUREMENTS
- Space Science Center and Department of Physics, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
- Astronomy Department and Theoretical Astrophysics Center, 601 Campbell Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
One proposed mechanism for heating the solar wind, from close to the Sun to beyond approx10 AU, invokes low-frequency, oblique, Alfven-wave turbulence. Because small-scale oblique Alfven waves (kinetic Alfven waves, KAWs) are compressive, the measured density fluctuations in the solar wind place an upper limit on the amplitude of KAWs 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 R{sub sun} and the near-Earth solar wind. At both locations, the upper limit we find is consistent with models in which the solar wind is heated by low-frequency Alfvenic turbulence. At 1 AU, the upper limit on the turbulent heating rate derived from the measured density fluctuations is within a factor of 2 of the measured solar-wind heating rate. Thus, if low-frequency Alfvenic turbulence is the primary mechanism for heating the near-Earth solar wind, KAWs must be one of the dominant sources of solar-wind density fluctuations at frequencies approx1 Hz. We also present a simple argument for why density-fluctuation measurements do appear to rule out models in which coronal holes are heated by non-turbulent high-frequency waves ('sweeping'), but are compatible with heating by low-frequency Alfvenic turbulence.
- OSTI ID:
- 21392529
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 707, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/707/2/1668; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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