| 1. |
- Telloni, Daniele, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the Solar Wind from Its Source on the Corona into the Inner Heliosphere during the First Solar Orbiter-Parker Solar Probe Quadrature
- 2021
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Letters. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 2041-8205 .- 2041-8213. ; 920:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This Letter addresses the first Solar Orbiter (SO)-Parker Solar Probe (PSP) quadrature, occurring on 2021 January 18 to investigate the evolution of solar wind from the extended corona to the inner heliosphere. Assuming ballistic propagation, the same plasma volume observed remotely in the corona at altitudes between 3.5 and 6.3 solar radii above the solar limb with the Metis coronagraph on SO can be tracked to PSP, orbiting at 0.1 au, thus allowing the local properties of the solar wind to be linked to the coronal source region from where it originated. Thanks to the close approach of PSP to the Sun and the simultaneous Metis observation of the solar corona, the flow-aligned magnetic field and the bulk kinetic energy flux density can be empirically inferred along the coronal current sheet with an unprecedented accuracy, allowing in particular estimation of the Alfven radius at 8.7 solar radii during the time of this event. This is thus the very first study of the same solar wind plasma as it expands from the sub-Alfvenic solar corona to just above the Alfven surface.
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| 2. |
- Telloni, Daniele, et al.
(författare)
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Linking Small-scale Solar Wind Properties with Large-scale Coronal Source Regions through Joint Parker Solar Probe-Metis/Solar Orbiter Observations
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : IOP Publishing Ltd. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 935:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The solar wind measured in situ by Parker Solar Probe in the very inner heliosphere is studied in combination with the remote-sensing observation of the coronal source region provided by the METIS coronagraph aboard Solar Orbiter. The coronal outflows observed near the ecliptic by Metis on 2021 January 17 at 16:30 UT, between 3.5 and 6.3 R (circle dot) above the eastern solar limb, can be associated with the streams sampled by PSP at 0.11 and 0.26 au from the Sun, in two time intervals almost 5 days apart. The two plasma flows come from two distinct source regions, characterized by different magnetic field polarity and intensity at the coronal base. It follows that both the global and local properties of the two streams are different. Specifically, the solar wind emanating from the stronger magnetic field region has a lower bulk flux density, as expected, and is in a state of well-developed Alfvenic turbulence, with low intermittency. This is interpreted in terms of slab turbulence in the context of nearly incompressible magnetohydrodynamics. Conversely, the highly intermittent and poorly developed turbulent behavior of the solar wind from the weaker magnetic field region is presumably due to large magnetic deflections most likely attributed to the presence of switchbacks of interchange reconnection origin.
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| 3. |
- Telloni, Daniele, et al.
(författare)
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Does Turbulence along the Coronal Current Sheet Drive Ion Cyclotron Waves?
- 2023
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 944:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Evidence for the presence of ion cyclotron waves (ICWs), driven by turbulence, at the boundaries of the current sheet is reported in this paper. By exploiting the full potential of the joint observations performed by Parker Solar Probe and the Metis coronagraph on board Solar Orbiter, local measurements of the solar wind can be linked with the large-scale structures of the solar corona. The results suggest that the dynamics of the current sheet layers generates turbulence, which in turn creates a sufficiently strong temperature anisotropy to make the solar-wind plasma unstable to anisotropy-driven instabilities such as the Alfven ion cyclotron, mirror-mode, and firehose instabilities. The study of the polarization state of high-frequency magnetic fluctuations reveals that ICWs are indeed present along the current sheet, thus linking the magnetic topology of the remotely imaged coronal source regions with the wave bursts observed in situ. The present results may allow improvement of state-of-the-art models based on the ion cyclotron mechanism, providing new insights into the processes involved in coronal heating.
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| 4. |
- Telloni, Daniele, et al.
(författare)
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Observation of a Magnetic Switchback in the Solar Corona
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Letters. - : Institute of Physics (IOP). - 2041-8205 .- 2041-8213. ; 936:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Switchbacks are sudden, large radial deflections of the solar wind magnetic field, widely revealed in interplanetary space by the Parker Solar Probe. The switchbacks' formation mechanism and sources are still unresolved, although candidate mechanisms include Alfvenic turbulence, shear-driven Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, interchange reconnection, and geometrical effects related to the Parker spiral. This Letter presents observations from the Metis coronagraph on board a Solar Orbiter of a single large propagating S-shaped vortex, interpreted as the first evidence of a switchback in the solar corona. It originated above an active region with the related loop system bounded by open-field regions to the east and west. Observations, modeling, and theory provide strong arguments in favor of the interchange reconnection origin of switchbacks. Metis measurements suggest that the initiation of the switchback may also be an indicator of the origin of slow solar wind.
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| 5. |
- Allen, R. C., et al.
(författare)
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Energetic ions in the Venusian system : Insights from the first Solar Orbiter flyby
- 2021
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 656
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Solar Orbiter flyby of Venus on 27 December 2020 allowed for an opportunity to measure the suprathermal to energetic ions in the Venusian system over a large range of radial distances to better understand the acceleration processes within the system and provide a characterization of galactic cosmic rays near the planet. Bursty suprathermal ion enhancements (up to similar to 10 keV) were observed as far as similar to 50R(V) downtail. These enhancements are likely related to a combination of acceleration mechanisms in regions of strong turbulence, current sheet crossings, and boundary layer crossings, with a possible instance of ion heating due to ion cyclotron waves within the Venusian tail. Upstream of the planet, suprathermal ions are observed that might be related to pick-up acceleration of photoionized exospheric populations as far as 5R(V) upstream in the solar wind as has been observed before by missions such as Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Venus Express. Near the closest approach of Solar Orbiter, the Galactic cosmic ray (GCR) count rate was observed to decrease by approximately 5 percent, which is consistent with the amount of sky obscured by the planet, suggesting a negligible abundance of GCR albedo particles at over 2 R-V. Along with modulation of the GCR population very close to Venus, the Solar Orbiter observations show that the Venusian system, even far from the planet, can be an effective accelerator of ions up to similar to 30 keV. This paper is part of a series of the first papers from the Solar Orbiter Venus flyby.
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| 6. |
- Aol, Sharon, et al.
(författare)
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Spectral properties of sub-kilometer-scale equatorial irregularities as seen by the Swarm satellites
- 2023
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Ingår i: Advances in Space Research. - : Elsevier. - 0273-1177 .- 1879-1948. ; 72:3, s. 741-752
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The faceplates on-board the Swarm satellites have provided high-resolution measurements of electron density at a frequency of 16 Hz along the satellite paths. The 16-Hz electron density data from Swarm were analyzed to determine the spectral characteristics of the Fregion ionospheric irregularities at Swarm altitudes. The electron density data covered all geographic longitudes with quasi-dipole latitude limited between +/- 30 degrees and the period considered was from October 2014 to October 2018, when the data was available. The Power Spectral Densities (PSDs) observed follows a power law. The values of spectral indices obtained showed a peak centered at around -2.5, located at the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) belts. The spectral indices were found to be sensitive to irregularity amplitude. The local time distribution of the spectral indices also showed a peak within the time sector 20:00 LT - 22:00 LT and then decreased gradually after about 22:00 LT till 06:00 LT. The peak of the spectral index was also observed in the South American-Atlantic-African longitudes and it was generally low in the Asian-Pacific region. The angle between the Swarm satellite orbital path and the magnetic field (sic) (B, v)was also examined and it was observed that the highest percentage of occurrence of ionospheric irregularities and the peak in spectral index was obtained only when the(sic) (B, v) was between 20 degrees and 40 degrees. The local turbulence is anisotropic with respect to the background magnetic field as indicated by a more negative spectral index for larger](sic) (B, v).
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| 7. |
- Bruno, Roberto, et al.
(författare)
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Comparative Study of the Kinetic Properties of Proton and Alpha Beams in the Alfvénic Wind Observed by SWA-PAS On Board Solar Orbiter
- 2024
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 969:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The problems of heating and acceleration of solar wind particles are of significant and enduring interest in astrophysics. The interactions between waves and particles are crucial in determining the distributions of proton and alpha particles, resulting in non-Maxwellian characteristics, including temperature anisotropies and particle beams. These processes can be better understood as long as the beam can be separated from the core for the two major components of the solar wind. We utilized an alternative numerical approach that leverages the clustering technique employed in machine learning to differentiate the primary populations within the velocity distribution rather than employing the conventional bi-Maxwellian fitting method. Separation of the core and beam revealed new features for protons and alphas. We estimated that the total temperature of the two beams was slightly higher than that of their respective cores, and the temperature anisotropy for the cores and beams was larger than 1. We concluded that the temperature ratio between alphas and protons largely over 4 is due to the presence of a massive alpha beam, which is approximately 50% of the alpha core. We provided evidence that the alpha core and beam populations are sensitive to Alfvénic fluctuations and the surfing effect found in the literature can be recovered only when considering the core and beam as a single population. Several similarities between proton and alpha beams would suggest a common and local generation mechanism not shared with the alpha core, which may not have necessarily been accelerated and heated locally.
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| 8. |
- Carbone, Francesco, et al.
(författare)
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Chaotic advection and particle pairs diffusion in a low-dimensional truncation of two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics
- 2022
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Ingår i: Europhysics letters. - : IOP Publishing. - 0295-5075 .- 1286-4854. ; 138:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The chaotic advection of fluid particle pairs is investigated though a low-order model of two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), where only five nonlinearly interacting modes are retained. The model is inthrinsically inhomogeneous and anisotropic because of the influence of large-scale fluctuations. Therefore, even though dynamically chaotic, the fields are unable to form the typical scaling laws of fully developed turbulence. Results show that a super-ballistic dynamics, reminiscent of the Richardson law of particle-pairs diffusion in turbulent flows, is robustly obtained using the truncated model. Indeed, even in the strongly reduced truncation presented here, particle diffusion in MHD turbulence has the same laws as the separation of velocity of particle pairs. The inherent anisotropy only affects the scaling of diffusivity, by enhancing the diffusion properties along one direction for small time-scales. Finally, when further anisotropy is introduced in the system through Alfven waves, fluid particles are trapped by these, and super-ballistic diffusion is replaced by Brownian-like diffusion. On the other hand, when the magnetic field is removed, the kinetic counterpart of the model does not show super-ballistic dynamics.
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| 9. |
- Carbone, Francesco, et al.
(författare)
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Local dimensionality and inverse persistence analysis of atmospheric turbulence in the stable boundary layer
- 2022
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Ingår i: Physical review. E. - : American Physical Society. - 2470-0045 .- 2470-0053. ; 106:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The dynamics across different scales in the stable atmospheric boundary layer has been investigated by means of two metrics, based on instantaneous fractal dimensions and grounded in dynamical systems theory. The wind velocity fluctuations obtained from data collected during the Cooperative Atmosphere-Surface Exchange Study- 1999 experiment were analyzed to provide a local (in terms of scales) and an instantaneous (in terms of time) description of the fractal properties and predictability of the system. By analyzing the phase-space projections of the continuous turbulent, intermittent, and radiative regimes, a progressive transformation, characterized by the emergence of multiple low-dimensional clusters embedded in a high-dimensional shell and a two-lobe mirror symmetrical structure of the inverse persistence, have been found. The phase space becomes increasingly complex and anisotropic as the turbulent fluctuations become uncorrelated. The phase space is characterized by a three-dimensional structure for the continuous turbulent samples in a range of scales compatible with the inertial subrange, where the phase-space-filling turbulent fluctuations dominate the dynamics, and is low dimensional in the other regimes. Moreover, lower-dimensional structures present a stronger persistence than the higher-dimensional structures. Eventually, all samples recover a three-dimensional structure and higher persistence level at large scales, far from the inertial subrange. The two metrics obtained in the analysis can be considered as proxies for the decorrelation time and the local anisotropy in the turbulent flow.
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| 10. |
- Carbone, Francesco, et al.
(författare)
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Modulation of Solar Wind Impact on the Earth's Magnetosphere during the Solar Cycle
- 2022
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Ingår i: Universe. - : MDPI. - 2218-1997. ; 8:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The understanding of extreme geomagnetic storms is one of the key issues in space weather. Such phenomena have been receiving increasing attention, especially with the aim of forecasting strong geomagnetic storms generated by high-energy solar events since they can severely perturb the near-Earth space environment. Here, the disturbance storm time index Dst, a crucial geomagnetic activity proxy for Sun-Earth interactions, is analyzed as a function of the energy carried by different solar wind streams. To determine the solar cycle activity influence on Dst, a 12-year dataset was split into sub-periods of maximum and minimum solar activity. Solar wind energy and geomagnetic activity were closely correlated for both periods of activity. Slow wind streams had negligible effects on Earth regardless of their energy, while high-speed streams may induce severe geomagnetic storming depending on the energy (kinetic or magnetic) carried by the flow. The difference between the two periods may be related to the higher rate of geo-effective events during the maximum activity, where coronal mass ejections represent the most energetic and geo-effective driver. During the minimum period, despite a lower rate of high energetic events, a moderate disturbance in the Dst index can be induced.
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