T. S. Horbury

Solar Wind Turbulence and the Role of Ion Instabilities

Solar wind is probably the best laboratory to study turbulence in astrophysical plasmas. In addition to the presence of magnetic field, the differences with neutral fluid isotropic turbulence are: (i) weakness of collisional dissipation and (ii) presence of several characteristic space and time scales. In this paper we discuss observational properties of solar wind turbulence in a large range from the MHD to the electron scales. At MHD scales, within the inertial range, turbulence cascade of magnetic fluctuations develops mostly in the plane perpendicular to the mean field, with the Kolmogorov scaling

THREE-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE OF SOLAR WIND TURBULENCE

k_{\perp}^{-5/3}

Global impacts of a Foreshock Bubble: Magnetosheath, magnetopause and ground-based observations

for the perpendicular cascade and

The FIELDS Instrument Suite for Solar Probe Plus

k_{\|}^{-2}

Ensemble downscaling in coupled solar wind-magnetosphere modeling for space weather forecasting

for the parallel one. Solar wind turbulence is compressible in nature: density fluctuations at MHD scales have the Kolmogorov spectrum. Velocity fluctuations do not follow magnetic field ones: their spectrum is a power-law with a −3/2 spectral index. Probability distribution functions of different plasma parameters are not Gaussian, indicating presence of intermittency. At the moment there is no global model taking into account all these observed properties of the inertial range. At ion scales, turbulent spectra have a break, compressibility increases and the density fluctuation spectrum has a local flattening. Around ion scales, magnetic spectra are variable and ion instabilities occur as a function of the local plasma parameters. Between ion and electron scales, a small scale turbulent cascade seems to be established. It is characterized by a well defined power-law spectrum in magnetic and density fluctuations with a spectral index close to −2.8. Approaching electron scales, the fluctuations are no more self-similar: an exponential cut-off is usually observed (for time intervals without quasi-parallel whistlers) indicating an onset of dissipation. The small scale inertial range between ion and electron scales and the electron dissipation range can be together described by

Magnetoresistive magnetometer for space science applications

\sim k_{\perp}^{-\alpha}\exp(-k_{\perp}\ell_{d})

The role of pressure gradients in driving sunward magnetosheath flows and magnetopause motion

, with α≃8/3 and the dissipation scale ℓd close to the electron Larmor radius ℓd≃ρe. The nature of this small scale cascade and a possible dissipation mechanism are still under debate.

Dependence of solar wind speed on the local magnetic field orientation: Role of Alfvénic fluctuations

We present a measurement of the scale-dependent, three-dimensional structure of the magnetic field fluctuations in inertial range solar wind turbulence with respect to a local, physically motivated coordinate system. The Alfvenic fluctuations are three-dimensionally anisotropic, with the sense of this anisotropy varying from large to small scales. At the outer scale, the magnetic field correlations are longest in the local fluctuation direction, consistent with Alfven waves. At the proton gyroscale, they are longest along the local mean field direction and shortest in the direction perpendicular to the local mean field and the local field fluctuation. The compressive fluctuations are highly elongated along the local mean field direction, although axially symmetric perpendicular to it. Their large anisotropy may explain why they are not heavily damped in the solar wind.

Experimental determination of whistler wave dispersion relation in the solar wind

Using multipoint observations we show, for the first time, that Foreshock Bubbles (FBs) have a global impact on Earth’s magnetosphere. We show that an FB, a transient kinetic phenomenon due to the interaction of backstreaming suprathermal ions with a discontinuity, modifies the total pressure upstream of the bow shock showing a decrease within the FB’s core and sheath regions. Magnetosheath plasma is accelerated towards the the intersection of the FB’s current sheet with the bow shock resulting in fast, sunward, flows as well as outward motion of the magnetopause. Ground-based magnetometers also show signatures of this magnetopause motion simultaneously across at least 7 hours of magnetic local time, corresponding to a distance of 21.5 RE transverse to the Sun-Earth line along the magnetopause. These observed global impacts of the FB are in agreement with previous simulations and in stark contrast to the known localised, smaller scale eects of Hot Flow Anomalies (HFAs).

Measures of three-dimensional anisotropy and intermittency in strong Alfvénic turbulence

NASA’s Solar Probe Plus (SPP) mission will make the first in situ measurements of the solar corona and the birthplace of the solar wind. The FIELDS instrument suite on SPP will make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields, the properties of in situ plasma waves, electron density and temperature profiles, and interplanetary radio emissions, amongst other things. Here, we describe the scientific objectives targeted by the SPP/FIELDS instrument, the instrument design itself, and the instrument concept of operations and planned data products.