Nonlinear hydromagnetic wave evolution in the solar wind.
Abstract
In nonlinear hydromagnetic theory, an arbitrary fluctuation propagating along the mean field direction steepens into shocks and evolves subsequently into a purely Alfvenic fluctuation of lower mean energy density. A class of smoothly varying initial fluctuations evolves into rotational discontinuities. For parameters appropriate to the solar wind, the time scale for conversion into Alfvenic fluctuations is, at most, of the order of the time for waves to travel 1 AU. The energy dissipated in the process may account for an appreciable fraction of the observed ion thermal-energy density at 1 AU.
- Publication:
-
Solar Wind Three
- Pub Date:
- 1974
- Bibcode:
- 1974sowi.conf..382C
- Keywords:
-
- Magnetohydrodynamic Waves;
- Plasma Oscillations;
- Solar Wind;
- Wave Propagation;
- Elliptical Polarization;
- Interplanetary Magnetic Fields;
- Nonlinear Systems;
- Nonuniform Plasmas;
- Shock Wave Propagation;
- Astrophysics