2020/11/01 by Honghong Wu, Chuanyi Tu, Xin Wang +2 · 25 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Atmospheric sciences #Computational physics #Electrical engineering #Environmental science #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Materials science #Physics #Plasma #Range (aeronautics) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Solar energy #Solar wind #Wind power #physics.space-ph
paper · pdf · open access · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/abc5b6
published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters 904(1), L8 (IOP Publishing) · 6 pages, 4 figures, published by The Astrophysical Journal Letters
openalex publication_date 2020/11/01 · arxiv created 2020/11/20 · arxiv updated 2020/11/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract Energy supply sources for the heating process in the slow solar wind remain unknown. The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission provides a good opportunity to study this issue. Recently, PSP observations have found that the slow solar wind experiences stronger heating inside 0.24 au. Here for the first time we measure in the slow solar wind the radial gradient of the low-frequency breaks on the magnetic trace power spectra and evaluate the associated energy supply rate. We find that the energy supply rate is consistent with the observed perpendicular heating rate calculated based on the gradient of the magnetic moment. Based on this finding, one could explain why the slow solar wind is strongly heated inside 0.25 au but expands nearly adiabatically outside 0.25 au. This finding supports the concept that the energy added from the energy-containing range is transferred by an energy cascade process to the dissipation range, and then dissipates to heat the slow solar wind. The related issues for further study are discussed.