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TURBULENCE IN THE SUB-ALFVÉNIC SOLAR WIND DRIVEN BY REFLECTION OF LOW-FREQUENCY ALFVÉN WAVES

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A. Verdini1, M. Velli2,3 and E. Buchlin4

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We study the formation and evolution of a turbulent spectrum of Alfvén waves driven by reflection off the solar wind density gradients, starting from the coronal base up to 17 solar radii, well beyond the Alfvénic critical point. The background solar wind is assigned and two-dimensional shell models are used to describe nonlinear interactions. We find that the turbulent spectra are influenced by the nature of the reflected waves. Close to the base, these give rise to a flatter and steeper spectrum for the outgoing and reflected waves, respectively. At higher heliocentric distance both spectra evolve toward an asymptotic Kolmogorov spectrum. The turbulent dissipation is found to account for at least half of the heating required to sustain the background imposed solar wind and its shape is found to be determined by the reflection-determined turbulent heating below 1.5 solar radii. Therefore, reflection and reflection-driven turbulence are shown to play a key role in the acceleration of the fast solar wind and origin of the turbulent spectrum found at 0.3 AU in the heliosphere.


Keywords

MHD; solar wind; turbulence; waves


PACS

96.60.Vg Particle emission, solar wind

95.30.Qd Magnetohydrodynamics and plasmas

96.50.Xy Heliosphere/ interstellar medium interactions

96.60.P- Corona

96.50.Tf MHD waves; plasma waves, turbulence

Subjects

Plasma physics

Astrophysics and astroparticles

Dates

Issue 1 (2009 July 20)

Received 2009 March 17, accepted for publication 2009 May 15

Published 2009 July 2



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