Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsh41c..01o&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SH41C-01
Physics
Plasma Physics
[7811] Space Plasma Physics / Discontinuities, [7835] Space Plasma Physics / Magnetic Reconnection, [7863] Space Plasma Physics / Turbulence
Scientific paper
Magnetic discontinuities are ubiquitous in the solar wind plasma. Classically, these structures are viewed as special persistent solutions to the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations that convect passively from the sun. While this interpretation has persisted, there is evidence to suggest discontinuities might be associated with turbulence. Indeed, results from solar wind observations and direct MHD numerical simulations will be presented supporting the possibility that discontinuities are related to intermittent structures dynamically generated by MHD turbulence. These current sheets could be the coherent structures that separate flux tubes in the inertial range; or the boundaries of spontaneous cellularization caused by local turbulence relaxation processes; or the interactions between juxtaposed flux tubes, and thus candidates for active magnetic reconnection sites. The hypothesis that solar wind discontinuities are sites of enhanced heating, as coherent structures are found to be within MHD turbulence, is also investigated. Since the dissipation function cannot be measured directly, the electron heat flux, electron temperature, and proton temperature are used as heating-related diagnostics. Contributions to solar wind heating are found which are inhomogeneous, non-Gaussian, and associated with current sheets. This will be presented along with further evidence that discontinuities are hotter than the surrounding plasma. These results conflict with the type of dissipation processes computed under the assumption of a uniform plasma, as is often the case when using linear wave theory. This research supported in part by the NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator program, the MMS mission, and NSF SHINE.
Dmitruk Pablo
Greco Andrés
Matthaeus William H.
Osman K.
Servidio Sergio
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