Compressional instability in the solar wind driven by wave dissipation

Details Compressional instability in the solar wind driven by wave dissipation Compressional instability in the solar wind driven by wave dissipation

Jan 1991

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1991jgr....96..179d&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 96, Jan. 1, 1991, p. 179-185.

Physics

3

Magnetohydrodynamic Waves, Plasma Heating, Solar Wind, Wave Dispersion, Magnetohydrodynamic Stability, Plasma Spectra

Scientific paper

The stability of a steady solar wind dissipatively heated by Alfven waves whose relative amplitude is saturated at a given level by nonlinear processes is examined. It is shown that long-wavelength compressional modes can be driven unstable by dissipative heating arising from short-wavelength saturated Alfven waves. Analytic expressions are derived for the marginal stability condition and the growth rates in the unstable region for the case of a moderate to low beta plasma. These are supplemented by a numerical solution of the full MHD dispersion equation, including dissipative Alfvenic effects, which confirms the approximate analysis. It is shown that the growth time of the instability can be of the order of 7 times the characteristic period of an Alfven wave for a wide range of parameters appropriate to the solar wind. The implication is that the compressional instability driven by dissipative Alfven waves could play a significant role in the large-scale heating and dynamics of the solar wind, particularly in the supersonic region.

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