Issue |
A&A
Volume 407, Number 2, August IV 2003
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 713 - 723 | |
Section | The Sun | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20030914 | |
Published online | 17 November 2003 |
A simple analytical expression for the power spectrum of cascading Alfvén waves in the solar wind
1
Theoretical Physics Division, Department of Physical Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland
2
Space Research Laboratory (SRL is part of the Väisälä Institute for Space Physics & Astronomy, University of Turku, Finland.) , Department of Physics, University of Turku, Finland
3
Institut für theoretische Physik IV: Weltraum- und Astrophysik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
Corresponding author: R. Vainio, rami.vainio@helsinki.fi
Received:
3
March
2003
Accepted:
4
June
2003
Alfvén wave transport in the solar wind, including
non-linear spectral energy transfer, is studied. We present
numerical solutions of wave transport using a diffusive flux
function previously introduced for spectral energy transfer, and
compare it with the analytical solution obtained for a convective
flux function. The two models of cascading produce very similar
behavior of a power spectrum initially of -form at the solar
surface, provided that the cascading constants are tuned to produce
the same spectral flux in the inertial range. We present an
analytical expression for the power spectrum of the
diffusively-cascading Alfvén waves in the solar wind derived from a
solution of the wave transport equation and show that it compares
well with the exact solutions. Our expression enables (semi)
analytical evaluation of the cyclotron heating rate, the wave
pressure gradient, and the energetic-particle mean free path related
to the Alfvén waves in the corona and solar wind.
Key words: Sun: corona / Sun: particle emission / Sun: solar wind / turbulence
© ESO, 2003
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