Solar Wind Electric Fields in the Ion Cyclotron Frequency Range

Abstract

Measurements of fluctuations of electric fields in the frequency range from a fraction of one Hz to 12.5 Hz are presented, and corrected for the Lorentz transformation of magnetic fluctuations to give the electric fields in the plasma frame. The electric fields are large enough to provide the dominant force on the ions of the solar wind in the region near the ion cyclotron frequency of protons, larger than the force due to magnetic fluctuations. They provide sufficient velocity space diffusion or heating to counteract conservation of magnetic moment in the expanding solar wind to maintain nearly isotropic velocity distributions.

References in corpus (1)

• Measurement of the electric fluctuation spectrum of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

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• Sub-ion scale Compressive Turbulence in the Solar wind: MMS spacecraft potential observations
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• Electron-to-ion bulk speed ratio as a parameter reflecting the occurrence of strong electron-dominated current sheets in the solar wind
• Scale dependent anisotropy of electric field fluctuations in solar wind turbulence