Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsh41b1786c&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SH41B-1786
Physics
Plasma Physics
[2149] Interplanetary Physics / Mhd Waves And Turbulence, [2169] Interplanetary Physics / Solar Wind Sources, [7509] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Corona, [7863] Space Plasma Physics / Turbulence
Scientific paper
A key obstacle in the way of producing realistic simulations of the Sun-heliosphere system is the lack of a first-principles understanding of coronal heating. Also, it is still unknown whether the solar wind is "fed" through flux tubes that remain open (and are energized by footpoint-driven wavelike fluctuations) or if mass and energy are input intermittently from closed loops into the open-field regions. In this presentation, we discuss self-consistent models that assume the energy comes from solar Alfven waves that are partially reflected, and then dissipated, by magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. These models have been found to reproduce many of the observed features of the fast and slow solar wind without the need for artificial "coronal heating functions" used by earlier models. For example, the models predict a variation with wind speed in commonly measured ratios of charge states and elemental abundances that agrees with observed trends. This contradicts a commonly held assertion that these ratios can only be produced by the injection of plasma from closed-field regions on the Sun. This presentation also reviews two recent comparisons between the models and empirical measurements: (1) The models successfully predict the amplitude and radial dependence of Faraday rotation fluctuations (FRFs) measured by the Helios probes for heliocentric distances between 2 and 15 solar radii. The FRFs are a particularly sensitive test of turbulence models because they depend not only on the plasma density and Alfven wave amplitude in the corona, but also on the turbulent correlation length. (2) The models predict the correct sense and magnitude of changes seen in the polar high-speed solar wind by Ulysses from the previous solar minimum (1996-1997) to the more recent peculiar minimum (2008-2009). By changing only the magnetic field along the polar magnetic flux tube, consistent with solar and heliospheric observations at the two epochs, the model correctly predicts that the wind speed remains relatively unchanged, but the in-situ density and temperature decrease by approximately 20 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
Chandran Benjamin D.
Cranmer Steven R.
Hollweg Joseph V.
van Ballegooijen Adriaan A.
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