Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Oct 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001georl..28.3831l&link_type=abstract
Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 28, Issue 20, p. 3831-3834
Physics
Plasma Physics
10
Interplanetary Physics: Mhd Waves And Turbulence, Space Plasma Physics: Magnetic Reconnection
Scientific paper
Recent spacecraft observations reveal that energetic tails in ion spectra are present continually in the slow low-latitude solar wind, even in the absence of nearby shocks. To explain this phenomenon we take into account growing evidence that MHD turbulence in the solar wind has a strong two-dimensional (2D) component. 2D MHD turbulence simulations exhibit large-scale field-aligned electric field fluctuations which are also observable in the solar wind. We explore pickup ion propagation and acceleration between the Sun and Earth with a newly developed kinetic numerical model which includes a random distribution of large-scale field-aligned electric field fluctuations consistent with observations in the low-latitude solar wind. The model is found to qualitatively reproduce the accelerated interstellar pickup He+ spectra observed at Earth. Like the observations, the simulated accelerated ``tail'' is approximately a power law f(v)~v-4.5 until it reaches particle speeds about ten times the solar wind speed where a rollover occurs.
le Roux Jakobus A.
Matthaeus William H.
Zank Gary P.
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