Solar wind discontinuities

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This is a collection of resources on the topic of solar wind discontinuities.

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Solar wind discontinuities (SWD)

Discontinuous changes in plasmas parameters and magnetic fields. Confucius Colburn et al., 1966

Sketch of types of discontinuity

  • Import element of solar wind turbulences Borovsky (2010).

  • Very kinetic structure:

    • Jumps in the electron density, temperature and pitch angle distribution Artemyev et al. (2019).

    • Interact with energetic part of the solar wind ions

Magnetohydrodynamics theory: classified as rotational discontinuities (RD), tangential discontinuities (TD), and shock waves

Formation of SWD

Turbulent ion heating by reconnection of tangential discontinuities. (a) Current density (color) and magnetic field lines, possible reconnection sites are indicated by crosses. (b) The proton temperature anisotropy (color) that indicates acceleration

Alfven wave steepening results in the discontinuity formation: magnetic energy transport from large scale (Alfven waves generated in the solar corona) to small (ion kinetic) scales of discontinuities, where this energy can be dissipated to particle heating

References

Artemyev, A. V., V. Angelopoulos, I. Y. Vasko, A. Runov, L. A. Avanov, B. L. Giles, C. T. Russell, and R. J. Strangeway. 2019. “On the Kinetic Nature of Solar Wind Discontinuities.” Geophysical Research Letters 46 (3): 1185–94. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079906.
Borovsky, Joseph E. 2010. “Contribution of Strong Discontinuities to the Power Spectrum of the Solar Wind.” Physical Review Letters 105 (11): 111102. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.111102.