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1. The Transport and Evolution of MHD Turbulence throughout the Heliosphere: Models and Observations

   https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids6100368  

   Adhikari, Laxman ; Zank, Gary P. ; Zhao, Lingling ( October 2021 , Fluids)

   A detailed study of solar wind turbulence throughout the heliosphere in both the upwind and downwind directions is presented. We use an incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence model that includes the effects of electrons, the separation of turbulence energy into proton and electron heating, the electron heat flux, and Coulomb collisions between protons and electrons. We derive expressions for the turbulence cascade rate corresponding to the energy in forward and backward propagating modes, the fluctuating kinetic and magnetic energy, the normalized cross-helicity, and the normalized residual energy, and calculate the turbulence cascade rate from 0.17 to 75 au in the upwindmore »and downwind directions. Finally, we use the turbulence transport models to derive cosmic ray (CR) parallel and perpendicular mean free paths (mfps) in the upwind and downwind heliocentric directions. We find that turbulence in the upwind and downwind directions is different, in part because of the asymmetric distribution of new born pickup ions in the two directions, which results in the CR mfps being different in the two directions. This is important for models that describe the modulation of cosmic rays by the solar wind.« less
2. Evolution of anisotropic turbulence in the fast and slow solar wind: Theory and Solar Orbiter measurements

   https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202140672  

   Adhikari, L. ; Zank, G. P. ; Zhao, L.-L. ; Telloni, D. ; Horbury, T. S. ; O’Brien, H. ; Evans, V. ; Angelini, V. ; Owen, C. J. ; Louarn, P. ; et al ( December 2021 , Astronomy & Astrophysics)

   Aims. Solar Orbiter (SolO) was launched on February 9, 2020, allowing us to study the nature of turbulence in the inner heliopshere. We investigate the evolution of anisotropic turbulence in the fast and slow solar wind in the inner heliosphere using the nearly incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (NI MHD) turbulence model and SolO measurements. Methods. We calculated the two dimensional (2D) and the slab variances of the energy in forward and backward propagating modes, the fluctuating magnetic energy, the fluctuating kinetic energy, the normalized residual energy, and the normalized cross-helicity as a function of the angle between the mean solar wind speedmore »and the mean magnetic field ( θ UB ), and as a function of the heliocentric distance using SolO measurements. We compared the observed results and the theoretical results of the NI MHD turbulence model as a function of the heliocentric distance. Results. The results show that the ratio of 2D energy and slab energy of forward and backward propagating modes, magnetic field fluctuations, and kinetic energy fluctuations increases as the angle between the mean solar wind flow and the mean magnetic field increases from θ UB  = 0° to approximately θ UB  = 90° and then decreases as θ UB  → 180°. We find that solar wind turbulence is a superposition of the dominant 2D component and a minority slab component as a function of the heliocentric distance. We find excellent agreement between the theoretical results and observed results as a function of the heliocentric distance.« less
3. Applicability of Taylor’s hypothesis during Parker Solar Probe perihelia

   https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039879  

   Perez, Jean C. ; Bourouaine, Sofiane ; Chen, Christopher H. ; Raouafi, Nour E. ( June 2021 , Astronomy & Astrophysics)

   We investigate the validity of Taylor’s hypothesis (TH) in the analysis of velocity and magnetic field fluctuations in Alfvénic solar wind streams measured by Parker Solar Probe (PSP) during the first four encounters. The analysis is based on a recent model of the spacetime correlation of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, which has been validated in high-resolution numerical simulations of strong reduced MHD turbulence. We use PSP velocity and magnetic field measurements from 24 h intervals selected from each of the first four encounters. The applicability of TH is investigated by measuring the parameter ϵ  =  δu 0 /√2 V ⊥ ,more »which quantifies the ratio between the typical speed of large-scale fluctuations, δu 0 , and the local perpendicular PSP speed in the solar wind frame, V ⊥ . TH is expected to be applicable for ϵ ≲ 0.5 when PSP is moving nearly perpendicular to the local magnetic field in the plasma frame, irrespective of the Alfvén Mach number M A = V SW ∕ V A , where V SW and V A are the local solar wind and Alfvén speed, respectively. For the four selected solar wind intervals, we find that between 10 and 60% of the time, the parameter ϵ is below 0.2 and the sampling angle (between the spacecraft velocity in the plasma frame and the local magnetic field) is greater than 30°. For angles above 30°, the sampling direction is sufficiently oblique to allow one to reconstruct the reduced energy spectrum E ( k ⊥ ) of magnetic fluctuations from its measured frequency spectra. The spectral indices determined from power-law fits of the measured frequency spectrum accurately represent the spectral indices associated with the underlying spatial spectrum of turbulent fluctuations in the plasma frame. Aside from a frequency broadening due to large-scale sweeping that requires careful consideration, the spatial spectrum can be recovered to obtain the distribution of fluctuation’s energy across scales in the plasma frame.« less
4. Improving the Alfvén Wave Solar Atmosphere Model Based on Parker Solar Probe Data

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac3d34  

   van der Holst, B. ; Huang, J. ; Sachdeva, N. ; Kasper, J. C. ; Manchester IV, W. B. ; Borovikov, D. ; Chandran, B. D. ; Case, A. W. ; Korreck, K. E. ; Larson, D. ; et al ( February 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract In van der Holst et al. (2019), we modeled the solar corona and inner heliosphere of the first encounter of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) using the Alfvén Wave Solar atmosphere Model (AWSoM) with Air Force Data Assimilative Photospheric flux Transport–Global Oscillation Network Group magnetograms, and made predictions of the state of the solar wind plasma for the first encounter. AWSoM uses low-frequency Alfvén wave turbulence to address the coronal heating and acceleration. Here, we revise our simulations, by introducing improvements in the energy partitioning of the wave dissipation to the electron and anisotropic proton heating and using amore »better grid design. We compare the new AWSoM results with the PSP data and find improved agreement with the magnetic field, turbulence level, and parallel proton plasma beta. To deduce the sources of the solar wind observed by PSP, we use the AWSoM model to determine the field line connectivity between PSP locations near the perihelion at 2018 November 6 UT 03:27 and the solar surface. Close to the perihelion, the field lines trace back to a negative-polarity region about the equator.« less
5. Turbulence in the Sub-Alfvénic Solar Wind

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac51da  

   Zank, G. P. ; Zhao, L.-L. ; Adhikari, L. ; Telloni, D. ; Kasper, J. C. ; Stevens, M. ; Rahmati, A. ; Bale, S. D. ( February 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Abstract The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) entered a region of sub-Alfvénic solar wind during encounter 8, and we present the first detailed analysis of low-frequency turbulence properties in this novel region. The magnetic field and flow velocity vectors were highly aligned during this interval. By constructing spectrograms of the normalized magnetic helicity, cross-helicity, and residual energy, we find that PSP observed primarily Alfvénic fluctuations, a consequence of the highly field-aligned flow that renders quasi-2D fluctuations unobservable to PSP. We extend Taylor’s hypothesis to sub- and super-Alfvénic flows. Spectra for the fluctuating forward and backward Elsässer variables ( z ± ,more »respectively) are presented, showing that z + modes dominate z − by an order of magnitude or more, and the z + spectrum is a power law in frequency (parallel wavenumber) f −3/2 ( k ∥ − 3 / 2 ) compared to the convex z − spectrum with f −3/2 ( k ∥ − 3 / 2 ) at low frequencies, flattening around a transition frequency (at which the nonlinear and Alfvén timescales are balanced) to f −1.25 at higher frequencies. The observed spectra are well fitted using a spectral theory for nearly incompressible magnetohydrodynamics assuming a wavenumber anisotropy k ⊥ ∼ k ∥ 3 / 4 , that the z + fluctuations experience primarily nonlinear interactions, and that the minority z − fluctuations experience both nonlinear and Alfvénic interactions with z + fluctuations. The density spectrum is a power law that resembles neither the z ± spectra nor the compressible magnetic field spectrum, suggesting that these are advected entropic rather than magnetosonic modes and not due to the parametric decay instability. Spectra in the neighboring modestly super-Alfvénic intervals are similar.« less