Abstract Nearly incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (NI MHD) theory for β ∼ 1 (or β ≪ 1) plasma has been developed and applied to the study of solar wind turbulence. The leading-order term in β ∼ 1 or β ≪ 1 plasma describes the majority of 2D turbulence, while the higher-order term describes the minority of slab turbulence. Here, we develop new NI MHD turbulence transport model equations in the high plasma beta regime. The leading-order term in a β ≫ 1 plasma is fully incompressible and admits both structures (flux ropes or magnetic islands) and slab (Alfvén waves) fluctuations. This paper couples the NI MHD turbulence transport equations with three fluid (proton, electron, and pickup ion) equations, and solves the 1D steady-state equations from 1–75 au. The model is tested against 27 yr of Voyager 2 data, and Ulysses and NH SWAP data. The results agree remarkably well, with some scatter, about the theoretical predictions.
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Coronal Loop Heating by Nearly Incompressible Magnetohydrodynamic and Reduced Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence Models
The transport of waves and turbulence beyond the photosphere is central to the coronal heating problem. Turbulence in the quiet solar corona has been modeled on the basis of the nearly incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (NI MHD) theory to describe the transport of low-frequency turbulence in open magnetic field regions. It describes the evolution of the coupled majority quasi-2D and minority slab component, driven by the magnetic carpet and advected by a subsonic, sub-Alfvénic flow from the lower corona. In this paper, we couple the NI MHD turbulence transport model with an MHD model of the solar corona to study the heating problem in a coronal loop. In a realistic benchmark coronal loop problem, we find that a loop can be heated to ∼1.5 million K by transport and dissipation of MHD turbulence described by the NI MHD model. We also find that the majority 2D component is as important as the minority slab component in the heating of the coronal loop. We compare our coupled MHD/NI MHD model results with a reduced MHD (RMHD) model. An important distinction between these models is that RMHD solves for small-scale velocity and magnetic field fluctuations and obtains the actual viscous/resistive dissipation associated with their evolution whereas NI MHD evolves scalar moments of the fluctuating velocity and magnetic fields and approximates dissipation using an MHD turbulence phenomenology. Despite the basic differences between the models, their simulation results match remarkably well, yielding almost identical heating rates inside the corona.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10397470
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Volume:
- 944
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0004-637X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 119
- Size(s):
- ["Article No. 119"]
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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