Time-Frequency Analysis.

Alfven waves, transverse incompressible magnetic oscillations, have been proposed as a possible mechanism to heat the Sun's corona to millions of degrees by transporting convective energy from the photosphere into the diffuse corona. We report the detection of Alfven waves in intensity, line-of-sight velocity, and linear polarization images of the solar corona taken using the FeXIII 1074.7-nanometer coronal emission line with the Coronal Multi-Channel Polarimeter (CoMP) instrument at the National Solar Observatory, New Mexico. Ubiquitous upward propagating waves were seen, with phase speeds of 1 to 4 megameters per second and trajectories consistent with the direction of the magnetic field inferred from the linear polarization measurements. An estimate of the energy carried by the waves that we spatially resolved indicates that they are too weak to heat the solar corona; however, unresolved Alfven waves may carry sufficient energy.

Alfven Waves in the Solar Corona

Aims. Solar Orbiter, the first mission of ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 programme and a mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, will explore the Sun and heliosphere from close up and out of the ecliptic plane. It was launched on 10 February 2020 04:03 UTC from Cape Canaveral and aims to address key questions of solar and heliospheric physics pertaining to how the Sun creates and controls the Heliosphere, and why solar activity changes with time. To answer these, the mission carries six remote-sensing instruments to observe the Sun and the solar corona, and four in-situ instruments to measure the solar wind, energetic particles, and electromagnetic fields. In this paper, we describe the science objectives of the mission, and how these will be addressed by the joint observations of the instruments onboard.Methods. The paper first summarises the mission-level science objectives, followed by an overview of the spacecraft and payload. We report the observables and performance figures of each instrument, as well as the trajectory design. This is followed by a summary of the science operations concept. The paper concludes with a more detailed description of the science objectives.Results. Solar Orbiter will combine in-situ measurements in the heliosphere with high-resolution remote-sensing observations of the Sun to address fundamental questions of solar and heliospheric physics. The performance of the Solar Orbiter payload meets the requirements derived from the mission’s science objectives. Its science return will be augmented further by coordinated observations with other space missions and ground-based observatories.

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The Solar Orbiter mission. Science overview

The solar wind is a magnetized plasma and as such exhibits collective plasma behavior associated with its characteristic spatial and temporal scales. The characteristic length scales include the size of the heliosphere, the collisional mean free paths of all species, their inertial lengths, their gyration radii, and their Debye lengths. The characteristic timescales include the expansion time, the collision times, and the periods associated with gyration, waves, and oscillations. We review the past and present research into the multi-scale nature of the solar wind based on in-situ spacecraft measurements and plasma theory. We emphasize that couplings of processes across scales are important for the global dynamics and thermodynamics of the solar wind. We describe methods to measure in-situ properties of particles and fields. We then discuss the role of expansion effects, non-equilibrium distribution functions, collisions, waves, turbulence, and kinetic microinstabilities for the multi-scale plasma evolution.

/pdf/the-multi-scale-nature-of-the-solar-wind-3e24qum4kt.pdf

The multi-scale nature of the solar wind

The recent observations of the anomalous cosmic ray (ACR) energy spectrum as Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 crossed the heliospheric termination shock have called into question the conventional shock source of these energetic particles. We suggest that the sectored heliospheric magnetic field, which results from the flapping of the heliospheric current sheet, piles up as it approaches the heliopause, narrowing the current sheets that separate the sectors and triggering the onset of collisionless magnetic reconnection. Particle-in-cell simulations reveal that most of the magnetic energy is released and most of this energy goes into energetic ions with significant but smaller amounts of energy going into electrons. The energy gain of the most energetic ions results from their reflection from the ends of contracting magnetic islands, a first-order Fermi process. The energy gain of the ions in contracting islands increases their parallel (to the magnetic field B) pressure p ? until the marginal fire-hose condition is reached, causing magnetic reconnection and associated particle acceleration to shut down. Thus, the feedback of the self-consistent development of the energetic ion pressure on reconnection is a crucial element of any reconnection-based, particle-acceleration model. The model calls into question the strong scattering assumption used to derive the Parker transport equation and therefore the absence of first-order Fermi acceleration in incompressible flows. A simple one-dimensional model for particle energy gain and loss is presented in which the feedback of the energetic particles on the reconnection drive is included. The ACR differential energy spectrum takes the form of a power law with a spectral index slightly above 1.5. The model has the potential to explain several key Voyager observations, including the similarities in the spectra of different ion species.

A magnetic reconnection mechanism for the generation of anomalous cosmic rays

The Pickup Ion-mediated Solar Wind

Influence of the Solar Cycle on Turbulence Properties and Cosmic-Ray Diffusion

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/abb828/pdf

The Origin of Switchbacks in the Solar Corona: Linear Theory

An Unusual Energetic Particle Flux Enhancement Associated with Solar Wind Magnetic Island Dynamics

During the recent solar minimum between cycles 23 and 24 (solar minimum P-23/24), the intensity of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) measured at the Earth was the highest ever recorded since space age. It is the purpose of this paper to resolve the most plausible mechanism for this unusually high intensity. A GCR transport model in three-dimensional heliosphere based on a simulation of Markov stochastic process is used to find the relation of cosmic ray modulation to various transport parameters, including solar wind (SW) speed, distance of heliospheric boundary, magnitude of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) at the Earth, tilt angle of heliospheric current sheet, and values of parallel and perpendicular diffusion coefficients. We calculate GCR proton energy spectra at the Earth for the last three solar minima P-21/22, P-22/23, and P-23/24, with the transport parameters obtained from observations. Besides weak IMF magnitude and slow SW speed, we find that a possible low magnetic turbulence, which increases the parallel diffusion and reduces the perpendicular diffusion in the polar direction, might be an additional possible mechanism for the high GCR intensity in the solar minimum P-23/24.

/pdf/modulation-of-galactic-cosmic-rays-during-the-unusual-solar-59xdyfigwy.pdf

Lingling Zhao

Papers

The Pickup Ion-mediated Solar Wind

Influence of the Solar Cycle on Turbulence Properties and Cosmic-Ray Diffusion

The Origin of Switchbacks in the Solar Corona: Linear Theory

An Unusual Energetic Particle Flux Enhancement Associated with Solar Wind Magnetic Island Dynamics

Modulation of galactic cosmic rays during the unusual solar minimum between cycles 23 and 24