Solar Angular Momentum Loss Over the Past Several Millennia
Summary (3 min read)
1. Introduction
- The observed rotation periods of most low-mass stars (M*1.3Me) on the main sequence can be explained by their magnetized stellar winds.
- Such models provide insight on how stellar wind torques evolve on secular timescales (∼Gyr), independently from their understanding of the braking mechanism.
- The authors observe variability in the magnetic field of the Sun on a range of much shorter timescales (DeRosa et al. 2012; Vidotto et al. 2018), which is expected to influence the angular momentum loss rate in the solar wind (Pinto et al.
- By applying a braking law derived from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations by Finley & Matt (2018), they calculated the time-varying torque on the Sun due to the solar wind.
2. Angular Momentum Loss Formulation
- The formulation of Equation (5) for á ñRA , using fopen, is insensitive to how the coronal magnetic field is structured (i.e., insensitive to the geometry of the magnetic field; Réville et al. 2015a), but the fit constants can be affected by differing wind acceleration profiles (Pantolmos & Matt 2017), and 3D structure in the mass flux.
- By comparing feasible base wind temperatures, Pantolmos & Matt (2017) showed there is at most a factor of ∼2 difference in the prediction of Equation (7) between the coldest and hottest polytropic winds (1.3–4.2MK for the Sun).
3.1. Observed Solar Wind Properties
- Hourly near-Earth solar wind plasma and magnetic field measurements are available from the OMNIWeb service.
- The OMNI data set is compiled from the in situ observations of 4 https://omniweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
- The average of this data set is indicated with a gray horizontal line.
- The open magnetic flux roughly declines in time over the past three cycles, with the current sunspot cycle hosting some of the weakest values recorded in the OMNI data set.
3.2. Coronal Mass Ejections
- Equations (8) and (9) do not take into account the effects of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the data.
- These appear as impulsive changes (generally increases) in the observed solar wind properties, and clearly violate the assumed isotropy of wind conditions in Equations (8) and (9).
- CMEs occur once every few days at solar minimum, however their occurrence rate tracks solar activity, and at solar maximum they are observed on average five times a day (Webb et al. 2017; Mishra et al. 2019).
- Previous authors have removed these events through the use of CME catalogs (Cane & Richardson 2003) or clipping anomalous spikes (Cohen 2011).
- CMEs carry only a few percent of the total solar mass-loss rate (Cranmer et al. 2017), however, at solar maximum they can provide a significant fraction of the average mass flux in the equatorial solar wind (Webb & Howard 1994).
3.3. Decades of Solar Wind Torque
- The authors use the open magnetic flux and mass-loss rate estimates from Section 3.1 to compute the angular momentum loss rate in The Astrophysical Journal, 883:67 (9pp), 2019 September 20 Finley et al. the solar wind using Equation (7).
- The results from this calculation are shown in the bottom panel of Figure 1.
- The value of á ñRA during the current sunspot cycle ranges from ∼8 to 16Re.
- From the in situ measurements of Pizzo et al. (1983) using the Helios spacecraft, to the recalculation of Li (1999) based on data from the Ulysses spacecraft.
4. Solar Wind Torque on Centennial and Millennial Timescales
- Up until now, the authors have examined only direct measurements of the solar wind.
- These indirect measurements are used to estimate longer time variability of the Sun’s open magnetic flux (Lockwood et al.
- Significantly for this work, they do not produce estimates for how the mass-loss rate of the Sun has varied.
- In terms of the open magnetic flux, which is constructed using the range of observed values from Section 3.1.the authors.
4.1. Estimating the Mass-loss Rate, and Wind Torque with the Open Magnetic Flux
- A weak trend of increasing mass-loss rate with increasing open magnetic flux is observed.
- When the authors estimate the mass-loss rate for the historical estimates of the open magnetic flux in Sections 4.3, they will use both Equation (10) and the 2σ bounds.
- This allows us to predict the torque on the Sun due to the solar wind solely from the value of the open magnetic flux.
4.2. Reconstructions of the Solar Open Magnetic Flux
- For the centuries and millennia pre-dating the space age, estimates of the open magnetic flux have been produced using a number of different indirect methods.
- To compare them with indirect methods and over a wide range of timescales, the authors plot the spacecraft data from Figure 1 also in Figure 3, which displays the solar wind parameters versus logarithmic look-back time since 2019.
4.2.1. Centennial Variability
- Geomagnetic disturbances, caused by the interaction of the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere, have been found to The Astrophysical Journal, 883:67 (9pp), 2019 September 20 Finley et al. correlate well with solar activity, and thus the amount of open magnetic flux in the heliosphere (Stamper et al.
- Inspecting the past four centuries, there are also times when the open magnetic flux is shown to weaken for several magnetic cycles (Usoskin et al. 2015).
- The 2σ bounds of Equation (10) roughly encompass the observed variation of the mass-loss rate (as constructed).
- Therefore, provided the 5 However, the additional complications did not statistically improve their Ṁ predictions.
4.2.2. Millennial Variability
- To go back further the open magnetic flux can only be reconstructed using cosmogenic radionuclides.
- This rate is modulated by the geomagnetic field, but also by features in the heliosphere, such as the interplanetary magnetic field and solar wind (Stuiver 1961; Stuiver & Quay 1980).
- Therefore, the concentration of cosmogenic radionuclides can be used as a proxy for solar variability (see review by Beer et al. 2012).
- These smoothed values are plotted with dotted and dashed lines, respectively, in the top panel of Figure 3.
- During the last several millennia, there appear to be times similar to the modern grand maxima, and the grand minima which are observed in the centennial reconstructions.
5.1. Reliability of Open Flux Proxies and Our Predicted Mass-loss Rates
- Indirect reconstructions of the solar open magnetic flux are by no means certain, and require careful examination and calibration.
- Sunspot number records, from which their centennial torque is ultimately generated, often suffer from historical periods that are incomplete or uncertain due to a lack of reliable observers (Vaquero et al.
- This requires knowledge of the physical mechanisms which produce, transport, and deposit each radioisotope (e.g., Reimer et al. 2009; Heikkilä et al. 2013).
- The solar massloss rate is not observed to vary substantially (extremes of 0.7–3.0× 1012 g s−1, see also Cohen 2011), and the torques calculated using Equation (7) are weakly dependent on their choice of mass-loss rate (when compared to the open magnetic flux).
5.2. Impacts of Magnetic Variability on Short Timescales
- Reconstructions of solar activity based on the concentrations of cosmogenic radionuclides incur smoothing effects from the transport and deposition timescales of each radionuclide.
- Therefore, such records struggle to recover short timescales variability, such as the 11 yr sunspot cycle.
- The significance of this effect over the complete nine millennia can be probed in a few ways.
- Each reconstruction is only sensitive to variability on timescales larger than the cadence of the data set.
- For timescales shorter than 27 day, the authors have no measure of how variability affects their average values compared to the true value, but observed variations on shorter timescales may be ever more dominated by spatial variations in the wind, rather than variations in the global, integrated wind properties.
6. Conclusion
- In this paper the authors have investigated the angular momentum loss rate of the Sun on a longer timescale than previously attempted.
- Further exploration of this discrepancy is required, and with Parker Solar Probe making in situ measurements of the solar wind closer to the Sun than previously attempted (Fox et al. 2016), a direct measurement of the angular momentum loss rate would help to validate, or discredit, their calculations.
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Frequently Asked Questions (14)
Q2. Why is the torque in the solar wind so variable?
Due to the nonlinear dependence of Equation (11) on the open magnetic flux in the solar wind, short-term variability in the open magnetic flux, even around a fixed average value, will increase the long-term average torques.
Q3. What is the effect of the cosmogenic radionuclides on the solar flux?
Reconstructions of solar activity based on the concentrations of cosmogenic radionuclides incur smoothing effects from the transport and deposition timescales of each radionuclide.
Q4. What is the effect of CMEs on the solar wind?
CMEs carry only afew percent of the total solar mass-loss rate (Cranmer et al. 2017), however, at solar maximum they can provide a significant fraction of the average mass flux in the equatorial solar wind (Webb & Howard 1994).
Q5. How did they calculate the torque on the Sun due to the solar wind?
By applying a braking law derived from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations by Finley & Matt (2018), they calculated the time-varying torque on the Sun due to the solar wind.
Q6. Why is the open magnetic flux an upper limit?
Due to kinematic effects that occur between the Alfvén surface and the measurements taken at 1 au, their estimate of the open magnetic flux is likely an upper limit (Owens et al. 2017a).
Q7. What is the effect of the magnetic field on the rotation of low-mass stars?
The resulting strong dependence of torque on rotation rate leads to a convergence of rotation periods with age, as initially fast rotating stars generate strong magnetic fields and experience a larger braking torque than the initially slowly rotating stars.
Q8. What are the fit constants for the wind torques?
These fit constants also account for the multiplicative factor of (4π)2, and any effects introduced by the flow being multi-dimensional in nature.
Q9. How do the authors estimate the open magnetic flux?
The authors use measurements of the solar wind to estimate the open magnetic flux usingf p= á ñR B R4 , 8Ropen 2 1 hr 27 days∣ ( )∣ ( )where the authors average the radial magnetic field BR, (taken from a single observing location) at a distance R from the Sun, over a full solar rotation (27 days), and assume that the solar wind is roughly isotropic on their averaging timescale, in order to estimate the open magnetic flux.
Q10. How do the authors calculate the braking torque of the Sun?
The authors then utilize reconstructions of the solar open magnetic flux, based on geomagnetic indices (Lockwood et al. 2014a), sunspot number records (Owens & Lockwood 2012), and concentrations of cosmogenic radionuclides (Wu et al. 2018b), to estimate the braking torque over the last four centuries, and then the last nine millennia.
Q11. What is the simplest way to estimate the mass loss rate for the open magnetic flux?
When the authors estimate the mass-loss rate for the historical estimates of the open magnetic flux in Sections 4.3, the authors will use both Equation (10) and the 2σ bounds.
Q12. What is the reason why the original data sets have a larger torque than their smoothed?
By comparing the average torques from the smoothed reconstructions of Lockwood et al. (2014a) and Owens et al. (2017b) to their original data sets, the authors find the original data sets have alarger torque by ∼4% than their smoothed counterparts; a result of the nonlinearity of the torque on open magnetic flux.
Q13. How have previous authors removed these events?
Previous authors have removed these events through the use of CME catalogs (Cane & Richardson 2003) or clipping anomalous spikes (Cohen 2011).
Q14. How did Finley and Matt determine the solar wind torque?
In Finley et al. (2018), the short timescale variability (from ∼27 days up to a few decades) of the solar wind was examined using in situ observations of the solar wind plasma and magnetic field.