Plasma dynamical processes in the solar wind
Abstract
Observations of proton and electron velcity distributions and of their moments at different radial distances from the Sun and in different parts of stream structured solar wind between 0.3 and 1 angstrom units are described. These observations are then compared with the corresponding results of theoretical studies on the plasma kinetics of a collisionless solar wind. The discrepancy deduced from these comparison then suggests that waves and their resonant interactions with these particles under consideration and instabilities of their distributions must play an important role in the physics of solar wind. In situ observations of these modes in the interplanetary medium are also discussed. Some of the theoretical results under which circumstances the proton and electron distribution might become unstable with respect to the ionacoustic mode are reviewed and some indirect observational evidence that these instabilities might indeed operate in the soalr wind are given.
- Publication:
-
Astronomische Gesellschaft Abstract Series
- Pub Date:
- 1980
- Bibcode:
- 1980AGAb.....Q.165B
- Keywords:
-
- Plasma Dynamics;
- Plasma Physics;
- Plasma-Particle Interactions;
- Relativistic Velocity;
- Solar Wind;
- Interplanetary Medium;
- Mass Distribution;
- Nonlinear Systems;
- Plasma Waves;
- Velocity Distribution;
- Solar Physics