Citation
Abstract
Solar wind columnar turbulence measurements are possibly the most important tool in probing the solar corona and solar wind, if for no other reason than their abundant availability. Fundamental to the extraction and utilization of the full informational content of such measurements is the confident understanding of the proper relationship between columnar turbulence and the most basic solar wind parameters — solar wind velocity and electron density. This article reviews investigations of the primary forms of solar wind columnar turbulence, including Doppler phase fluctuation, spectral broadening, weak interplanetary scintillation, and electron density. Based on the totality of these measurements, a unified, self-consistent, observational hypothesis for solar wind columnar turbulence is proposed as follows: (1) The dependence on radial distance r of solar wind mean electron density N, is well represented by the power law model (with A and B fit coefficients): N,(r) = Ar + Br?-3 (2) To first order, all primary measurements of solar wind columnar turbulence are well represented by the signal path integration of the electron density model from (1) above (R = signal path): Columnar turbulence = f N (7) dR
Details
- Volume
- 42-50
- Published
- April 15, 1979
- Pages
- 124–131
- File Size
- 737.0 KB