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A two-fluid solar-wind model with intermittent Alfvénic turbulence
Journal article   Peer reviewed

A two-fluid solar-wind model with intermittent Alfvénic turbulence

Benjamin Divakar Giles Chandran, Toby Adkins, Stuart D. Bale, Vincent David, Jasper Halekas, Kristopher Klein, Romain Meyrand, Jean C. Perez, Munehito Shoda, Jonathan Squire, …
Journal of plasma physics, Vol.91(4), E125
08/01/2025
DOI: 10.1017/S0022377825100640

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Abstract

In one of the leading theories for the origin of the solar wind, photospheric motions launch Alfvén waves (AWs) that propagate along open magnetic-field lines through the solar atmosphere and into the solar wind. The radial variation in the Alfvén speed causes some of the AWs to reflect, and counter-propagating AWs subsequently interact to produce Alfveńic turbulence, in which AW energy cascades from long wavelengths to short wavelengths and dissipates, heating the plasma. In this paper we develop a one-dimensional two-fluid solar-wind model that includes Alfvénic turbulence, proton temperature anisotropy and a novel method for apportioning the turbulent heating rate between parallel proton heating, perpendicular proton heating and electron heating. We employ a turbulence model that accounts for recent observations from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which find that AW fluctuations in the near-Sun solar wind are intermittent and less anisotropic than in previous models of anisotropic magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. Our solar-wind model reproduces a wide range of remote observations of the corona and in-situ measurements of the solar wind, and our turbulent heating model consists of analytic equations that could be usefully incorporated into other solar-wind models and numerical models of more distant astrophysical plasmas.
astrophysical plasmas plasma nonlinear phenomena space plasma physics

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