SHINE: Studies of Solar Wind Turbulence and Thermodynamics

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

The Principal Investigator (PI) and his colleagues will investigate the physics of proton and electron pitch-angle scattering and heating in the solar wind, using multiple spacecraft instruments and relating these observations to solar wind turbulence. Specifically, the research team will study the interaction of turbulence, proton temperature anisotropy instabilities, and solar wind heating, as well as the role of dispersive turbulence, waves, and instabilities in controlling solar wind electron thermodynamics. The overarching goal of this investigation is to understand the evolution of proton and electron thermodynamics in the solar wind and of field fluctuations in the heliosphere, over a wide range of parameters. The team have previously demonstrated their statistical approach to studying the physics of wave-particle coupling in the interplanetary medium. This new investigation will provide a detailed picture of the connections among temperature anisotropies, small-scale instabilities, and turbulence. The PI's systematic study of different wave modes for high frequency electromagnetic fluctuations will provide fundamental constraints to temperature anisotropy studies, as well as constrain the dissipation mechanisms of solar wind turbulence and associated heating. This project will provide for the continued professional development of a junior scientist and the training of one full time graduate student. The study of the non-equilibrium characteristics of solar wind electron distribution functions are of great importance for solving problems related to heat conduction, plasma micro-instabilities, and transport in weakly collisional plasmas, as well as for determining the origin of the solar wind. This work will have broad astrophysical applications as well, since the dissipation modes and instabilities investigated in this project occur in the solar corona, the coronas of other stars and compact astrophysical objects, and in other more exotic environments in the universe, such as astrophysical jets and supernova blast waves.