Journal
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS
Volume 119, Issue 7, Pages 5210-5219Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2014JA019758
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Funding
- NSF Solar-Terrestrial Program
- NASA Magnetospheric Guest Investigators Program
- NASA CCMSM-24 Program
- NASA Geospace SRT Program
- Science and Technology Funding Council Grant [ST/I000801/1]
- Div Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences
- Directorate For Geosciences [1261659] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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This report explores the feasibility of explaining the observed proton heating in the inner heliosphere (1) by tapping the field-aligned relative drift between alpha particles and protons in the solar wind plasma and (2) by tapping the strahl-electron heat flux from the Sun. The observed reduction of the alpha-proton drift kinetic energy from 0.3 to 1 AU and the observed reduction of electron heat flux from 0.3 to 1 AU are each about half of the energy needed to account for the observed heating of protons from 0.3 to 1 AU. A mechanism is identified to transfer the free energy of the alpha-proton relative drift into proton thermal energy: the alpha-proton magnetosonic instability. A mechanism is identified to transfer kinetic energy from the strahl-electron heat flux into proton thermal energy: weak double layers. At the current state of knowledge, the plausibility of heating the solar wind protons via the alpha-proton magnetosonic instability is high. The properties of the weak double layers that have been observed in the solar wind are not well known; more data analysis and plasma simulations are needed before the plausibility of heating the solar wind protons by the double-layer mechanism can be evaluated.
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