Imaging the Breakup of Coronal Structure and the Onset of Turbulence in the Solar Wind
Abstract
The slow solar wind is dominated by gusty, variable structure that has been associated by many authors with turbulence. The slow wind is thought to arise from the vicinity of the coronal streamer belt, which is dominated by quasi-stationary, highly anisotropic, radially aligned density structure shaped by the solar magnetic field. Photometric analysis of the top of the streamers, in the range of apparent distances between roughly 4° and 24° from the Sun, reveals the ultimate fate of the streamers. In the range above 10° from the Sun, where the transition from low-plasma-beta to high-plasma-beta is thought to occur, we have imaged the fading and breakup of quiescent coronal streamers, pseudostreamers, and/or rays (together, "Striae"), and the textural transition at large scales from smooth background flow with sporadic ejecta, to turbulent and variable flow. The result constrains and illuminates turbulent theories of solar wind evolution, and highlights the need for better imaging measurements in this critical transition zone between corona and solar wind - the final unexplored frontier of the heliosphere.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMSH44A..05D
- Keywords:
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- 2149 MHD waves and turbulence;
- INTERPLANETARY PHYSICSDE: 2164 Solar wind plasma;
- INTERPLANETARY PHYSICSDE: 7827 Kinetic and MHD theory;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICSDE: 7863 Turbulence;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS