Ulysses observations of magnetic waves due to newborn interstellar pickup ions. II. Application of turbulence concepts to limiting wave energy and observability

Journal Article · Sun Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/787/2/133· OSTI ID:22356777

Cannon, Bradford E. ^[1]; Smith, Charles W.; Isenberg, Philip A.; Vasquez, Bernard J.; Joyce, Colin J. ^[2]; Murphy, Neil ^[3]

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1. Physics Department, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306 (United States)
2. Physics Department and Space Science Center, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824 (United States)
3. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 180-600, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)

The low-frequency magnetic waves that arise from the isotropization of newborn interstellar pickup ions (PUIs) are reasonably well described by linear and quasi-linear kinetic theory in so far as those theories predict the wave frequency and polarization in the spacecraft frame. Those theories fail to describe the scarce observability of the waves. Quasilinear theory predicts that the wave power should accumulate over long periods of time as the relatively weak kinetic instability slowly adds power to the observed spectrum. At the same time it has been argued that the same wave energy must serve as a secondary source of thermal ion heating in the outer heliosphere once the initial turbulence is depleted. To the extent that turbulent transport of the wave energy acts against the spectrally confined accumulation of wave energy, turbulence should be a limiting factor in observability. We argue that turbulence does limit the observability of the waves and we use turbulence theory to predict the observed wave energy. We compare this prediction against a database of 502 wave observations attributed to newborn interstellar PUIs observed by the Ulysses spacecraft.

• OSTI ID: 22356777
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 787; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
FORECASTING
HELIOSPHERE
INSTABILITY
INTERSTELLAR SPACE
IONS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
POLARIZATION
QUASILINEAR PROBLEMS
SOLAR WIND
SPACE VEHICLES
SPECTRA
SUN
TURBULENCE
WAVE POWER