First-year ion-acoustic wave observations in the solar wind by the RPW/TDS instrument onboard Solar Orbiter

Abstract

Electric field measurements of the Time Domain Sampler (TDS) receiver, part of the Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument on board Solar Orbiter, often exhibit very intense broadband wave emissions at frequencies below 20~kHz in the spacecraft frame. In this paper, we present a year-long study of electrostatic fluctuations observed in the solar wind at an interval of heliocentric distances from 0.5 to 1~AU. The RPW/TDS observations provide a nearly continuous data set for a statistical study of intense waves below the local plasma frequency. The on-board and continuously collected and processed properties of waveform snapshots allow for the mapping plasma waves at frequencies between 200~Hz and 20~kHz. We used the triggered waveform snapshots and a Doppler-shifted solution of the dispersion relation for wave mode identification in order to carry out a detailed spectral and polarization analysis. Electrostatic ion-acoustic waves are the common wave emissions observed between the local electron and proton plasma frequency in the soler wind. The occurrence rate of ion-acoustic waves peaks around perihelion at distances of 0.5~AU and decreases with increasing distances, with only a few waves detected per day at 0.9~AU. Waves are more likely to be observed when the local proton moments and magnetic field are highly variable. A more detailed analysis of more than 10000 triggered waveform snapshots shows the mean wave frequency at about 3 kHz and wave amplitude about 2.5 mV/m. The wave amplitude varies as 1/R^(1.38) with the heliocentric distance. The relative phase distribution between two components of the E-field shows a mostly linear wave polarization. Electric field fluctuations are closely aligned with the directions of the ambient field lines. Only a small number (3%) of ion-acoustic waves are observed at larger magnetic discontinuities.

9 pages, 8 figures

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