Turbulent Generation of Magnetic Switchbacks in the Alfvénic Solar Wind

One of the most important early results from the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) is the ubiquitous presence of magnetic switchbacks, whose origin is under debate. Using a three-dimensional direct numerical simulation of the equations of compressible magnetohydrodynamics from the corona to 40 solar radii, w...

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Vydané v:The Astrophysical journal Ročník 915; číslo 1; s. 52 - 70
Hlavní autori: Shoda, Munehito, Chandran, Benjamin D. G., Cranmer, Steven R.
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:English
Vydavateľské údaje: Philadelphia The American Astronomical Society 01.07.2021
IOP Publishing
Predmet:
Alfven waves
Amplitudes
Astrophysics
Compressibility
Computational fluid dynamics
Corona
Direct numerical simulation
Flyby missions
Granulation
Interplanetary turbulence
Magnetic properties
Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
Magnetohydrodynamical simulations
Magnetohydrodynamics
Numerical simulations
Simulation
Solar probes
Solar wind
Space plasmas
ISSN:0004-637X, 1538-4357
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Shrnutí:One of the most important early results from the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) is the ubiquitous presence of magnetic switchbacks, whose origin is under debate. Using a three-dimensional direct numerical simulation of the equations of compressible magnetohydrodynamics from the corona to 40 solar radii, we investigate whether magnetic switchbacks emerge from granulation-driven Alfvén waves and turbulence in the solar wind. The simulated solar wind is an Alfvénic slow-solar-wind stream with a radial profile consistent with various observations, including observations from PSP. As a natural consequence of Alfvén-wave turbulence, the simulation reproduced magnetic switchbacks with many of the same properties as observed switchbacks, including Alfvénic v – b correlation, spherical polarization (low magnetic compressibility), and a volume filling fraction that increases with radial distance. The analysis of propagation speed and scale length shows that the magnetic switchbacks are large-amplitude (nonlinear) Alfvén waves with discontinuities in the magnetic-field direction. We directly compare our simulation with observations using a virtual flyby of PSP in our simulation domain. We conclude that at least some of the switchbacks observed by PSP are a natural consequence of the growth in amplitude of spherically polarized Alfvén waves as they propagate away from the Sun.
Bibliografia:The Sun and the Heliosphere
AAS29897
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/abfdbc