MIT Libraries logoDSpace@MIT

MIT
View Item 
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

TURBULENT HEATING OF THE DISTANT SOLAR WIND BY INTERSTELLAR PICKUP PROTONS IN A DECELERATING FLOW

Author(s)
Isenberg, Philip A.; Smith, Charles W.; Matthaeus, William H.; Richardson, John D.
Thumbnail
DownloadIsenberg-2010-TURBULENT HEATING OF.pdf (362.4Kb)
PUBLISHER_POLICY

Publisher Policy

Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.

Terms of use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
Previous models of solar wind heating by interstellar pickup proton-driven turbulence have assumed that the wind speed is a constant in heliocentric radial position. However, the same pickup process, which is taken to provide the turbulent energy, must also decelerate the wind. In this paper, we extend our phenomenological turbulence model to include variable wind speed, and then incorporate the deceleration due to interstellar pickup protons into the model. We compare the model results with plasma and field data from Voyager 2, taking this opportunity to present an extended and improved data set of proton core temperature, magnetic field fluctuation intensity, and correlation length along the Voyager trajectory. A particular motivation for including the solar wind deceleration in this model is the expectation that a slower wind would reduce the resulting proton core temperature in the region beyond ~60 AU, where the previous model predictions were higher than the observed values. However, we find instead that the deceleration of the steady-state wind increases the energy input to the turbulence, causing even higher temperatures in that region. The increased heating is shown to result from the larger values of the ratio of Alfven speed to solar wind speed that develop in the decelerating wind.
Date issued
2010-08
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95834
Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Journal
Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
Institute of Physics/American Astronomical Society
Citation
Isenberg, Philip A., Charles W. Smith, William H. Matthaeus, and John D. Richardson. “TURBULENT HEATING OF THE DISTANT SOLAR WIND BY INTERSTELLAR PICKUP PROTONS IN A DECELERATING FLOW.” The Astrophysical Journal 719, no. 1 (July 22, 2010): 716–721. © 2010 American Astronomical Society.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0004-637X
1538-4357

Collections
  • MIT Open Access Articles

Browse

All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

My Account

Login

Statistics

OA StatisticsStatistics by CountryStatistics by Department
MIT Libraries
PrivacyPermissionsAccessibilityContact us
MIT
Content created by the MIT Libraries, CC BY-NC unless otherwise noted. Notify us about copyright concerns.