The Impact of Turbulent Solar Wind Fluctuations on Solar Orbiter Plasma Proton Measurements
| Autor: | Daniel Verscharen, Robert T. Wicks, Christopher J. Owen, Georgios Nicolaou |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Proton FOS: Physical sciences Electron 7. Clean energy 01 natural sciences law.invention Orbiter Physics - Space Physics law Physics::Plasma Physics 0103 physical sciences Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 010303 astronomy & astrophysics 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Physics Turbulence Astronomy and Astrophysics Plasma Space Physics (physics.space-ph) Computational physics Solar wind Distribution function 13. Climate action Space and Planetary Science Physics::Space Physics Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Heliosphere |
| Popis: | Solar Orbiter will observe the Sun and the inner heliosphere to study the connections between solar activity, coronal structure, and the origin of the solar wind. The plasma instruments on board Solar Orbiter will determine the three-dimensional velocity distribution functions of the plasma ions and electrons with high time resolution. The analysis of these distributions will determine the plasma bulk parameters, such as density, velocity, and temperature. This paper examines the effects of short-time-scale plasma variations on particle measurements and the estimated bulk parameters of the plasma. For the purpose of this study, we simulate the expected observations of solar wind protons, taking into account the performance of the Proton-Alpha Sensor (PAS) on board Solar Orbiter. We particularly examine the effects of Alfv\'enic and slow-mode-like fluctuations, commonly observed in the solar wind on timescales of milliseconds to hours, on the observations. We do this by constructing distribution functions from modeled observations and calculate their statistical moments in order to derive plasma bulk parameters. The comparison between the derived parameters with the known input allows us to estimate the expected accuracy of Solar Orbiter proton measurements in the solar wind under typical conditions. We find that the plasma fluctuations due to these turbulence effects have only minor effects on future SWA-PAS observations |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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