Intermittent heating in the inner Heliosphere: PSP observations

Solar Wind temperature at 1 AU exhibits statistical correlation with the magnetic structure, wherein regions with high temperature are found to be associated with coherent structures [1]. Using Parker Solar Probe (PSP) data from the first encounter, we studied this correlation between the magnetic field structure, measured using the Partial Variance of Increments (PVI) [2], and the radial temperature of the ionized hydrogen atoms (protons). For the magnetic field, we used the low cadence data from FIELDS instrument and for proton temperature we used the moments data from SWEAP. We observed that the probability distribution function (PDF) of events with high PVIs have a higher median temperature than those with lower PVI, implying the presence of heating mechanism in the solar wind, associated with turbulence driven structures.

[1] Osman, K. T., Matthaeus, W. H., Greco, A., & Servidio, S.2011, ApJ, 727, L11

[2] A. Greco, W. H. Matthaeus, S,. Perri, K. T. Osman, S. Servidio, M. Wan and P. Dmitruk, Space Sci Rev., 214, 1 (2018)