Exploring the solar wind

474 Pages·2012·37.225 MB·English

by  Marian Lazar

EXPLORING THE
SOLAR WIND

Edited by Marian Lazar
Exploring the Solar Wind
Edited by Marian Lazar

Published by InTech
Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia

Copyright © 2012 InTech
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First published March, 2012
Printed in Croatia

A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com
Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected]

Exploring the Solar Wind, Edited by Marian Lazar
p. cm.
ISBN 978-953-51-0339-4

Contents

Preface IX
Part 1 The Solar Wind: Overview of the Fundamentals 1
Chapter 1 Solar Wind Laws Valid for any Phase of a Solar Cycle 3
V.G. Eselevich
Chapter 2 Solar Wind: Origin, Properties and Impact on Earth 29
U.L. Visakh Kumar and P.J. Kurian
Part 2 The Solar Wind Elemental Compostition 47
Chapter 3 Solar Wind Composition
Associated with the Solar Activity 49
X. Wang, B. Klecker and P. Wurz
Chapter 4 Solar Wind and Solar System
Matter After Mission Genesis 69
Kurt Marti and Peter Bochsler
Chapter 5 Measuring the Isotopic
Composition of Solar Wind Noble Gases 93
Alex Meshik, Charles Hohenberg,
Olga Pravdivtseva and Donald Burnett
Chapter 6 Solar Wind Noble Gases in Micrometeorites 121
Takahito Osawa
Part 3 The Solar Wind Dynamics: From Large to Small Scales 141
Chapter 7 Multifractal Turbulence in the Heliosphere 143
Wiesław M. Macek
Chapter 8 Field-Aligned Current
Mechanisms of Prominence Destabilization 169
Petko Nenovski
VI Contents

Chapter 9 Small Scale Processes in the Solar Wind 195
Antonella Greco, Francesco Valentini and Sergio Servidio
Chapter 10 Kinetic Models of Solar Wind
Electrons, Protons and Heavy Ions 221
Viviane Pierrard
Chapter 11 Suprathermal Particle Populations
in the Solar Wind and Corona 241
M. Lazar, R. Schlickeiser and S. Poedts
Part 4 The Solar Wind Magnetic Field Powered by the Sun 259
Chapter 12 Impact of the Large-Scale Solar Magnetic
Field on the Solar Corona and Solar Wind 261
A.G. Tlatov and B.P. Filippov
Chapter 13 Variability of Low Energy
Cosmic Rays Near Earth 285
Karel Kudela
Part 5 The Interaction of the
Solar Wind with the Magnetosphere 315
Chapter 14 Impact of Solar Wind on the Earth
Magnetosphere: Recent Progress in the
Modeling of Ring Current and Radiation Belts 317
Natalia Buzulukova, Mei-Ching Fok and Alex Glocer
Chapter 15 Ground-Based Monitoring
of the Solar Wind Geoefficiency 337
Oleg Troshichev
Chapter 16 The Polar Cap PC Indices: Relations to
Solar Wind and Global Disturbances 357
Peter Stauning
Chapter 17 Sudden Impulses in the Magnetosphere and at Ground 399
U. Villante and M. Piersanti
Chapter 18 Turbulence in the Magnetosheath and the Problem
of Plasma Penetration Inside the Magnetosphere 417
Elizaveta E. Antonova, Maria S. Pulinets, Maria O. Riazantseva,
Svetlana S. Znatkova, Igor P. Kirpichev and Marina V. Stepanova
Chapter 19 Solar Wind Sails 439
Ikkoh Funaki and Hiroshi Yamakawa

Preface

The solar wind is a continuous outward stream of energetic charged particles from the
Sun’s hot corona. The high temperature in the solar corona measures more than one
million degrees causing ionization of the hydrogen and formation of a hot plasma of
protons and electrons. The solar plasma is so hot that it breaks free of the Sun’s
gravitational force and blows away from the surface in all directions giving rise to the
solar wind. The intensity of the solar wind changes constantly, and when it gets
stronger, we see more brighter aurora on Earth. Terrestrial magnetic field is
compressed by the solar wind and distorted into a comet-shaped cavity known as the
magnetosphere. The magnetosphere protects the Earth as it deflects the solar wind
streams, which would otherwise blow the atmosphere away. However, the energetic
solar flares and coronal mass ejections during times of an active Sun can drastically
affect the solar wind and space weather conditions, and, implicitly, the advanced
space technology we have become so dependent upon in our everyday lives.
Understanding the changing solar wind and its effects on Earth and our life is
therefore one of the most challenging tasks facing space scientists today, and many
space exploration missions focus on the solar wind and its interactions with Earth.
This book consists of a selection of original papers of the leading scientists in the
fields of Space and Planetary Physics, Solar and Space Plasma Physics with
important contribu- tions to the theory, modeling and experimental techniques of
the solar wind exploration. All chapters of this book were invited with the aim of
providing a comprehensive view of the current knowledge of the solar wind
formation and elemental composition, the interplane- tary dynamical evolution and
acceleration of the charged plasma particles, and the guiding magnetic field that
connects to the magnetospheric field lines and adjusts the effects of the solar wind
on Earth.
The book is divided into five distinct sections: an introductive description of the solar
wind properties and laws associated with different phases of the solar activity, and
four key research topics with significant advances in the last decades. In the second
section, the interested reader can find an extended analysis of the solar wind matter
and elemental composition as measured in-situ by different spacecraft missions or
from traces in microme- teorites. The third section is devoted to the solar wind
dynamics ranging from the large-scale perturbations in the heliosphere to the small-
X Preface

scale kinetic processes of the wave-particle en- ergy dissipation. Magnetic
reconnection is closely related to wave turbulence, which can be an efficient
mechanism to dissipate magnetic energy into kinetic energy in small-scale, lo- calised
processes. The fourth section highlights the role of the interplanetary magnetic field,
which is powered by the Sun and extends through the corona further out in the solar
wind. In the last section, four chapters report on the progress made in describing the
solar wind interaction with the Earth’s magnetosphere, focusing on principal
geophysical effects as well as the wave turbulence and the problem of plasma
penetration into the magnetosphere. The pressure exerted by the solar wind on the
terrestrial magnetosphere has inspired a new and ambitious concept of propulsion for
the so-called magnetic solar wind sails, which are the subject of the last chapter of our
book.
It is necessary to point out that this book is not a monograph as it does not cover all
aspects of the topic. Its purpose is to provide the means for interested readers to
become familiar with the basic concepts as well as the recent progress in developing
the observational techniques and theoretical models of the solar wind. I also am
convinced that most of the research scientists actively working in this field will find in
this book many new and interesting ideas.

Marian Lazar
Institute for Theoretical Physics,
Institute IV: Space and Astrophysics,
Ruhr-University, Bochum
Germany