Turbulent density fluctuations and proton heating rate in the solar wind from 9-20~R_{\odot}

Abstract

We obtain scatter broadened images of the Crab Nebula at 80 MHz as it transits through the inner solar wind in June 2016 and 2017. These images are anisotropic, with the major axis oriented perpendicular to the radially outward coronal magnetic field. Using these data, we deduce that the density modulation index (δN_e/N_e) caused by turbulent density fluctuations in the solar wind ranges from 1.9 \times 10^{-3} to 7.7 \times 10^{-3} between 9-20 R_{\odot}. We also find that the heating rate of solar wind protons at these distances ranges from 2.2 \times 10^{-13} to 1.0 \times 10^{-11} ~erg~cm^{-3}~s^{-1}. On two occasions, the line of sight intercepted a coronal streamer. We find that the presence of the streamer approximately doubles the thickness of the scattering screen.

arXiv commentto appear in The Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (10)

• A Model of Turbulence in Magnetized Plasmas: Implications for the Dissipation Range in the Solar Wind
• Radial Dependence of the Frequency Break Between Fluid and Kinetic Scales in the Solar Wind Fluctuations
• Constraining Low-Frequency Alfvenic Turbulence in the Solar Wind Using Density Fluctuation Measurements
• The role of compressibility in solar wind plasma turbulence
• A Kolmogorov-Like Exact Relation for Compressible Polytropic Turbulence
• Amplitude of solar wind density turbulence from 10--45 $R_{\odot }$
• A study of density modulation index in the inner heliospheric solar wind during solar cycle 23
• Coronal turbulence and the angular broadening of radio sources - the role of the structure function
• Turbulent Density Spectrum in Solar Wind Plasma
• Constraints on coronal turbulence models from source sizes of noise storms at 327 MHz

Cited by in corpus (9)

• An Anisotropic Density Turbulence Model from the Sun to 1 au Derived From Radio Observations
• Evidence for Super-Alfvenic oscillations in sources of Solar type III radio bursts
• Fine structure of type III solar radio bursts from Langmuir wave motion in turbulent plasma
• Characterising coronal turbulence using snapshot imaging of radio bursts in 80-200 MHz
• Turbulent Proton Heating Rate in the Solar Wind from $5$ to $45R_{\odot }$
• Global Solar Magnetic-field and Interplanetary Scintillations During the Past Four Solar Cycles
• Dissipation scale lengths of density turbulence in the inner solar wind
• Preparing for Solar and Heliospheric Science with the SKAO: An Indian Perspective
• Ion-scale Turbulence and Energy Cascade Rate in the Solar Corona and Inner Heliosphere