Spectra of Temperature Fluctuations in the Solar Wind

Abstract

Turbulent cascade transferring the free energy contained within the large scale fluctuations of the magnetic field, velocity and density into the smaller ones is probably one of the most important mechanisms responsible for heating of the solar corona and solar wind, thus the turbulent behavior of these quantities is intensively studied. The temperature is also highly fluctuating quantity but its variations are studied only rarely. There are probably two reasons, first the temperature is tensor and, second, an experimental determination of temperature variations requires knowledge of the full velocity distribution with an appropriate time resolution but such measurements are scarce. To overcome this problem, the Bright Monitor of the Solar Wind (BMSW) on board Spektr-R used the Maxwellian approximation and provided the thermal velocity with a 32 ms resolution, investigating factors influencing the temperature power spectral density shape. We discuss the question whether the temperature spectra determined from Faraday cups are real or apparent and analyze mutual relations of power spectral densities of parameters like the density, parallel and perpendicular components of the velocity and magnetic field fluctuations. Finally, we compare their spectral slopes with the slopes of the thermal velocity in both inertial and kinetic ranges and their evolution in course of solar wind expansion.

Keywords

• solar wind
• turbulence
• Faraday cups
• temperature determination
• temperature fluctuations
• power spectral densities