Proton polytropic behavior of periodic density structures in the solar wind
Authors
C. Katsavrias, G. Nicolaou, S. Di Matteo, L. Kepko, N. M. Viall, S. Aminalragia-Giamini, G. Livadiotis
Abstract
In recent years, mesoscales have gained scientific interest because they have been determined to be important in a broad range of phenomena throughout heliophysics. The solar wind mesoscale structures include periodic density structures (PDSs), which are quasi-periodic increases in the density of the solar wind that range from a few minutes to a few hours. These structures have been extensively observed in remote-sensing observations of the solar corona and in in situ observations out to 1 AU, where they manifest as radial length scales greater than or equal to the size of the Earth’s dayside magnetosphere, that is, from tens to hundreds of Earth radii. While the precise mechanisms that form PDSs are still debated, recent studies confirmed that most PDSs are of solar origin and do not form through dynamics during their propagation in the interplanetary space.
Year
2024
Venue
Advances in Space Research Volume 74, Issue 8