The role of solar-wind turbulence in the coupling of the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere

Details The role of solar-wind turbulence in the coupling of the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere The role of solar-wind turbulence in the coupling of the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere

May 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agusmsm51b..01b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2002, abstract #SM51B-01

Physics

2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, 3220 Nonlinear Dynamics, 7839 Nonlinear Phenomena, 7863 Turbulence, 2149 Mhd Waves And Turbulence

Scientific paper

We are interested in assessing the role of turbulence in solar-terrestrial physics. Guided by the large literature of high-Reynolds-number fluid-wake experiments, we have been examining the coupling of the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere. Of particular interest is a set of turbulence-injection experiments in which the interaction of the fluid flow with obstacles was controlled by the level turbulence that was seeded into the upstream flow (freestream turbulence). The interpretation of the experimental results is that the coupling of the flow to the obstacle is caused by an eddy viscosity that is controlled by the amplitude of the upstream turbulence, with higher levels of turbulence leading to an increased viscous drag force. Utilizing several years of solar-wind and magnetospheric data, correlations are established between the amplitude of the magnetic-field fluctuations in the solar wind and the geomagnetic indices AE, AL, AU, and Kp, with geomagnetic activity being higher when the amplitude of the turbulence is greater. This turbulence-amplitude effect is clearer when the IMF is northward, but the effect is also present when the IMF is southward. A check indicates that the level of turbulence in the magnetosheath (which is the true driver of the magnetosphere) tracks the level of turbulence in the upstream solar wind.

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