Rivera Yeimy J, Badman Samuel T, Stevens Michael L, Verniero Jaye L, Stawarz Julia E, Shi Chen, Raines Jim M, Paulson Kristoff W, Owen Christopher J, Niembro Tatiana, Louarn Philippe, Livi Stefano A, Lepri Susan T, Kasper Justin C, Horbury Timothy S, Halekas Jasper S, Dewey Ryan M, De Marco Rossana, Bale Stuart D
Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
Science. 2024 Aug 30;385(6712):962-966. doi: 10.1126/science.adk6953. Epub 2024 Aug 29.
After leaving the Sun's corona, the solar wind continues to accelerate and cools, but more slowly than expected for a freely expanding adiabatic gas. Alfvén waves are perturbations of the interplanetary magnetic field that transport energy. We use in situ measurements from the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter spacecraft to investigate a stream of solar wind as it traverses the inner heliosphere. The observations show heating and acceleration of the plasma between the outer edge of the corona and near the orbit of Venus, along with the presence of large-amplitude Alfvén waves. We calculate that the damping and mechanical work performed by the Alfvén waves are sufficient to power the heating and acceleration of the fast solar wind in the inner heliosphere.
离开太阳日冕后，太阳风持续加速并冷却，但比自由膨胀的绝热气体预期的速度要慢。阿尔文波是行星际磁场的扰动，负责传输能量。我们利用帕克太阳探测器和太阳轨道飞行器的原位测量数据，来研究一股太阳风穿越内日球层的过程。观测结果显示，在日冕外缘和金星轨道附近之间的等离子体出现了加热和加速现象，同时还存在大幅度的阿尔文波。我们计算得出，阿尔文波所做的阻尼和机械功足以推动内日球层中快速太阳风的加热和加速。
