62 research outputs found
Solar wind turbulent heating by interstellar pickup protons: 2-component model
We apply a recently developed 2-component phenomenology to the turbulent heating of the core solar wind protons as seen at the Voyager 2 spacecraft. We find that this new description improves the model predictions of core temperature and correlation scale of the fluctuations, yielding excellent agreement with the Voyager measurements. However, the model fluctuation intensity substantially exceeds the Voyager measurements in the outer heliosphere, indicating that this picture needs further refinement
Resonant Interactions Between Protons and Oblique Alfv\'en/Ion-Cyclotron Waves
Resonant interactions between ions and Alfv\'en/ion-cyclotron (A/IC) waves
may play an important role in the heating and acceleration of the fast solar
wind. Although such interactions have been studied extensively for "parallel"
waves, whose wave vectors are aligned with the background magnetic
field , much less is known about interactions between ions and
oblique A/IC waves, for which the angle between and is nonzero. In this paper, we present new numerical results on resonant
cyclotron interactions between protons and oblique A/IC waves in collisionless
low-beta plasmas such as the solar corona. We find that if some mechanism
generates oblique high-frequency A/IC waves, then these waves initially modify
the proton distribution function in such a way that it becomes unstable to
parallel waves. Parallel waves are then amplified to the point that they
dominate the wave energy at the large parallel wave numbers at which the waves
resonate with the particles. Pitch-angle scattering by these waves then causes
the plasma to evolve towards a state in which the proton distribution is
constant along a particular set of nested "scattering surfaces" in velocity
space, whose shapes have been calculated previously. As the distribution
function approaches this state, the imaginary part of the frequency of parallel
A/IC waves drops continuously towards zero, but oblique waves continue to
undergo cyclotron damping while simultaneously causing protons to diffuse
across these kinetic shells to higher energies. We conclude that oblique A/IC
waves can be more effective at heating protons than parallel A/IC waves,
because for oblique waves the plasma does not relax towards a state in which
proton damping of oblique A/IC waves ceases
A Self-Consistent Marginally Stable State for Parallel Ion Cyclotron Waves
We derive an equation whose solutions describe self-consistent states of
marginal stability for a proton-electron plasma interacting with
parallel-propagating ion cyclotron waves. Ion cyclotron waves propagating
through this marginally stable plasma will neither grow nor damp. The
dispersion relation of these waves, {\omega} (k), smoothly rises from the usual
MHD behavior at small |k| to reach {\omega} = {\Omega}p as k \rightarrow
\pm\infty. The proton distribution function has constant phase-space density
along the characteristic resonant surfaces defined by this dispersion relation.
Our equation contains a free function describing the variation of the proton
phase-space density across these surfaces. Taking this free function to be a
simple "box function", we obtain specific solutions of the marginally stable
state for a range of proton parallel betas. The phase speeds of these waves are
larger than those given by the cold plasma dispersion relation, and the
characteristic surfaces are more sharply peaked in the v\bot direction. The
threshold anisotropy for generation of ion cyclotron waves is also larger than
that given by estimates which assume bi-Maxwellian proton distributions.Comment: in press in Physics of Plasma
TURBULENT HEATING OF THE DISTANT SOLAR WIND BY INTERSTELLAR PICKUP PROTONS IN A DECELERATING FLOW
Previous models of solar wind heating by interstellar pickup proton-driven turbulence have assumed that the wind speed is a constant in heliocentric radial position. However, the same pickup process, which is taken to provide the turbulent energy, must also decelerate the wind. In this paper, we extend our phenomenological turbulence model to include variable wind speed, and then incorporate the deceleration due to interstellar pickup protons into the model. We compare the model results with plasma and field data from Voyager 2, taking this opportunity to present an extended and improved data set of proton core temperature, magnetic field fluctuation intensity, and correlation length along the Voyager trajectory. A particular motivation for including the solar wind deceleration in this model is the expectation that a slower wind would reduce the resulting proton core temperature in the region beyond ~60 AU, where the previous model predictions were higher than the observed values. However, we find instead that the deceleration of the steady-state wind increases the energy input to the turbulence, causing even higher temperatures in that region. The increased heating is shown to result from the larger values of the ratio of Alfven speed to solar wind speed that develop in the decelerating wind.Jet Propulsion Laboratory (U.S.) (NASA contract 959203)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA grant NNX08A147G)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Guest Investigator grant NNX07AH75G)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Guest Investigator grant NNX08AJ19G
Studies of Interstellar Pickup Ions in the Solar Wind
The work under this grant involves studies of the interaction of interstellar pickup ions with the solar wind, with the goal of a comprehensive model of the particle distributions and wave intensities to be expected throughout the heliosphere, as well as the interactions of those distributions with the solar wind termination shock. In the past year, we have completed a number of projects, including observations and modeling of the effects of a large scattering mean free path on the pickup He(+) seen at AMPTE, an analytical model of anisotropic pickup tons in a steady radial magnetic field, and a derivation of a reduced solar wind Mach number due to increased estimates on the inflowing hydrogen density allowing for a weak termination shock. In the next year, we plan to investigate in more detail the correspondence between our models of anisotropic pickup ions and the data on spectra, variations, and proton-He(+) correlation provided by AMPTE, Ulysses, and our instrument on SOHO. We will model the time-dependent pickup ion density resulting from finite periods of radial magnetic field. We will also incorporate the effects of a large mean free path into our analysis of the He(+) focusing cone, leading to more accurate parameter values for the interstellar helium gas. This progress report also includes a discussion of our Space Physics Educational Outreach activities in the past year and plans for the next year
Turbulence Driving by Interstellar Pickup Ions in the Outer Solar Wind
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 implies the operation of
a self-regulation mechanism that maintains the observed conditions of
turbulence and heating in the PUI-dominated solar wind.Comment: To be published in The Astrophysical Journa
Heating the outer heliosphere by pickup protons
There is a growing body of literature that demonstrates the ability of a turbulent cascade within the solar wind to heat the thermal protons. Several sources of energy are required to accomplish the observed heating. Wind shear and shocks originating with the multiple source of wind plasma heat the wind inside ∽AU. However, beyond this distance little is left of these sources and all that remains is the energy injected into the plasma by the pickup of newborn protons originating from interstellar neutrals. Recent advances in the theory of wave excitation by the newborn protons allows us to return to the published heating theory and remove a previously unexplained parameterization of the heating due to pickup protons. Furthermore, recent observational evidence suggests that large-scale correlations between the wind speed and the proton temperature exist into the distant outer heliosphere that motivate an attempt to connect the two within the structure of the heating theory
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