Dispersive Magnetosonic Waves and Turbulence in the Heliosheath: Multi-Fluid MHD Reconstruction of Voyager 2 Observations
Abstract
Recently we demonstrated that our three-fluid MHD model of the solar wind plasma (where cold thermal solar wind ions, hot pickup ions, and electrons are treated as separate fluids) is able to reconstruct the microstructure of the termination shock observed by Voyager 2 [Zieger et al., 2015]. We constrained the unknown pickup ion abundance and temperature and confirmed the presence of a hot electron population at the termination shock, which has been predicted by a number of previous theoretical studies [e.g. Chasei and Fahr, 2014; Fahr et al., 2014]. We showed that a significant part of the upstream hydrodynamic energy is transferred to the heating of pickup ions and "massless" electrons. As shown in Zieger et al., [2015], three-fluid MHD theory predicts two fast magnetosonic modes, a low-frequency fast mode or solar wind ion (SW) mode and a high-frequency fast mode or pickup ion (PUI) mode. The coupling of the two ion populations results in a quasi-stationary nonlinear mode or oscilliton, which appears as a trailing wave train downstream of the termination shock. In single-fluid plasma, dispersive effects appear on the scale of the Debye length. However, in a non-equilibrium plasma like the solar wind, where solar wind ions and PUIs have different temperatures, dispersive effects become important on fluid scales [see Zieger et al., 2015]. Here we show that the dispersive effects of fast magnetosonic waves are expected on the scale of astronomical units (AU), and dispersion plays an important role producing compressional turbulence in the heliosheath. The trailing wave train of the termination shock (the SW-mode oscilliton) does not extend to infinity. Downstream propagating PUI-mode waves grow until they steepen into PUI shocklets and overturn starting to propagate backward. The upstream propagating PUI-mode waves result in fast magnetosonic turbulence and limit the downstream extension of the oscilliton. The overturning distance of the PUI-mode, where these waves start to propagate backward, depends on the maximum growth rate of the PUI-mode. We discuss our simulations in light of the Voyager 2 observations in the heliosheath.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMSH41C2542Z
- Keywords:
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- 2104 Cosmic rays;
- INTERPLANETARY PHYSICSDE: 2124 Heliopause and solar wind termination;
- INTERPLANETARY PHYSICSDE: 2126 Heliosphere/interstellar medium interactions;
- INTERPLANETARY PHYSICSDE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS