The Sun The Solar Wind And The Heliosphere

This volume represents the state of the art of the science covered by the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) Division IV: Solar Wind and Interplanetary Field. It contains a collection of contributions by top experts addressing and reviewing a variety of topics included under the umbrella of the division. It covers subjects that extend from the interior of the Sun to the heliopause, and from the study of physical processes in the Sun and the solar wind plasma to space weather forecasts. The book is organized in 6 parts: the solar interior, the solar atmosphere, the heliosphere, heliophysical processes, radio emissions, and coordinated science in the Sun-Earth system. In addition, we highlight some of the results presented during the IAGA Division IV symposia in the 11th Scientific Assembly of IAGA in Sopron, Hungary, on 23-30 August 2009, which was planned simultaneously with this book.

Contributors examine the physics of wind origin and physical phenomena in winds, including heliospheric shocks, magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, and kinetic phenomena--and their interactions with surrounding media. Contributions range from studies of the interstellar cloud surrounding the solar system to solar wind interaction with comets.

Understanding how the Sun changes though its 11-year sunspot cycle and how these changes affect the vast space around the Sun – the heliosphere – has been one of the principal objectives of space research since the advent of the space age. This book presents the evolution of the heliosphere through an entire solar activity cycle. The last solar cycle (cycle 23) has been the best observed from both the Earth and from a fleet of spacecraft. Of these, the joint ESA-NASA Ulysses probe has provided continuous observations of the state of the heliosphere since 1990 from a unique vantage point, that of a nearly polar orbit around the Sun. Ulysses’ results affect our understanding of the heliosphere from the interior of the Sun to the interstellar medium - beyond the outer boundary of the heliosphere. Written by scientists closely associated with the Ulysses mission, the book describes and explains the many different aspects of changes in the heliosphere in response to solar activity. In particular, the authors describe the rise in solar activity from the last minimum in solar activity in 1996 to its maximum in 2000 and the subsequent decline in activity.

This volume helps the reader to understand the ways and means of how dynamical phenomena are generated at the Sun, how they travel through the Heliosphere, and how they affect Earth. It provides an integrated account of the three principal chains of events all the way from the Sun to Earth: the normal solar wind, coronal mass ejections, and solar energetic particles.

9 MHDTurbulence in the Heliosphere: Evolution and Intermittency 253 Bruno Bavassano, Roberto Bruno and Vincenzo Carbone 1 Introduction 254 2 MHD Turbulence Evolution 255 2. 1 Ecliptic Turbulence 256 2. 2 Polar Turbulence 258 2. 3 Conclusions on Turbulence Evolution 263 3 Intermittency 264 3. 1 Probability Distribution Functions of Fluctuations and Self-similarity 269 3. 2 Radial Evolution of Intermittency 271 3. 3 Identifying Intermittent Events 273 3. 4 Conclusions on Intermittency 277 10 283 Waves and Turbulence in the Solar Corona Eckart Marsch 1 Introduction 284 2 Coronal Magnetic Field Structures 284 3 Magnetic Network Activity and Coronal Heating 287 4 Waves and Flows in Loops and Funnels 290 5 Magnetohydrodynamic Waves and Flux Tube Oscillations 293 5. 1 Observation and Theory 293 5. 2 Oscillations of Thin Flux Tubes 295 5. 3 Wave Amplitudes Versus Height from Numerical Mod- ~ 2~ 5. 4 A Standing Slow Magnetoacoustic Wave 299 6 Plasma Waves and Heating of Particles 301 7 Generation, Transfer and Dissipation of Coronal Turbulence 303 7. 1 Generation of Magnetohydrodynamic Waves 303 7. 2 Wave Energy Transfer and Turbulent Cascade 304 7. 3 Wave Dissipation in the Kinetic Domain 307 7. 4 Origin and Generation of Coronal High-Frequency Waves 308 7.

Written by experts who created the field, this volume explores uncharted scientific territory, with articles discussing the effect of our galactic environment on the heliosphere, planetary system and Earth. Leading experts in diverse fields discuss the physical changes expected as the heliosphere adjusts to its galactic environment. Topics include the interaction between solar wind and interstellar dust and gas, cosmic ray modulation, magnetospheres, variations in the solar environment, and the cosmic ray isotope record preserved in paleoclimate data.

The second in this series of three heliophysics texts, integrating the many aspects of space storms and their energetic radiation.