2021/01/23 by Munehito Shoda, Benjamin D. G. Chandran, Shoda, Munehito +3 · 5 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2101.09529
openalex publication_date 2021/01/23 · openalex created_date 2022/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
One of the most important early results from the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) is\nthe ubiquitous presence of magnetic switchbacks, whose origin is under debate.\nUsing a three-dimensional direct numerical simulation of the equations of\ncompressible magnetohydrodynamics from the corona to 40 solar radii, we\ninvestigate whether magnetic switchbacks emerge from granulation-driven\nAlfv 'en waves and turbulence in the solar wind. The simulated solar wind is an\nAlfv 'enic slow-solar-wind stream with a radial profile consistent with various\nobservations, including observations from PSP. As a natural consequence of\nAlfv 'en-wave turbulence, the simulation reproduced magnetic switchbacks with\nmany of the same properties as observed switchbacks, including Alfv 'enic v-b\ncorrelation, spherical polarization (low magnetic compressibility), and a\nvolume filling fraction that increases with radial distance. The analysis of\npropagation speed and scale length shows that the magnetic switchbacks are\nlarge-amplitude (nonlinear) Alfv 'en waves with discontinuities in the magnetic\nfield direction. We directly compare our simulation with observations using a\nvirtual flyby of PSP in our simulation domain. We conclude that at least some\nof the switchbacks observed by PSP are a natural consequence of the growth in\namplitude of spherically polarized Alfv 'en waves as they propagate away from\nthe Sun.\n