Observation and Modeling of the Solar Wind Turbulence Evolution in the Sub-Mercury Inner Heliosphere

Telloni, Daniele and Adhikari, Laxman and Zank, Gary P. and Hadid, Lina Z. and Sánchez-Cano, Beatriz and Sorriso-Valvo, Luca and Zhao, Lingling and Panasenco, Olga and Shi, Chen and Velli, Marco and Susino, Roberto and Verscharen, Daniel and Milillo, Anna and Alberti, Tommaso and Narita, Yasuhito and Verdini, Andrea and Grimani, Catia and Bruno, Roberto and D’Amicis, Raffaella and Perrone, Denise and Marino, Raffaele and Carbone, Francesco and Califano, Francesco and Malara, Francesco and Stawarz, Julia E. and Laker, Ronan and Liberatore, Alessandro and Bale, Stuart D. and Kasper, Justin C. and Heyner, Daniel and de Wit, Thierry Dudok and Goetz, Keith and Harvey, Peter R. and MacDowall, Robert J. and Malaspina, David M. and Pulupa, Marc and Case, Anthony W. and Korreck, Kelly E. and Larson, Davin and Livi, Roberto and Stevens, Michael L. and Whittlesey, Phyllis and Auster, Hans-Ulrich and Richter, Ingo (2022) Observation and Modeling of the Solar Wind Turbulence Evolution in the Sub-Mercury Inner Heliosphere. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 938 (2). L8. ISSN 2041-8205

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Abstract

This letter exploits the radial alignment between the Parker Solar Probe and BepiColombo in late 2022 February, when both spacecraft were within Mercury's orbit. This allows the study of the turbulent evolution, namely, the change in spectral and intermittency properties, of the same plasma parcel during its expansion from 0.11 to 0.33 au, a still unexplored region. The observational analysis of the solar wind turbulent features at the two different evolution stages is complemented by a theoretical description based on the turbulence transport model equations for nearly incompressible magnetohydrodynamics. The results provide strong evidence that the solar wind turbulence already undergoes significant evolution at distances less than 0.3 au from the Sun, which can be satisfactorily explained as due to evolving slab fluctuations. This work represents a step forward in understanding the processes that control the transition from weak to strong turbulence in the solar wind and in properly modeling the heliosphere.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: Eprints STM archive > Physics and Astronomy
Depositing User: Unnamed user with email admin@eprints.stmarchive
Date Deposited: 22 Apr 2023 09:41
Last Modified: 30 Dec 2023 13:19
URI: http://public.paper4promo.com/id/eprint/163

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