Magnetic and thermal pressures in the solar wind |
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| Authors: | L F Burlaga K W Ogilvie |
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| Institution: | (1) Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | Explorer 34 solar wind data for the period June to December, 1967 show that(a) The magnetic pressure, P
B B
2/8 , and thermal pressure,P
kn
p
kTp+n
kT+n
e
kTe,are variable and positively correlated on a scale of  2 days, but (b) changes in P
b and P
k are anticorrelated on a scale  1 hr (0.01 AU). Thus, dynamical hydromagnetic processes (dv/dt o) must occur on the mesoscale, but the solar wind tends to be in equilibrium(P
B+P
Kconstant) on a smaller scale, the microscale. The 3-hr averages show that the most probable value of  P
k/P
B is =1.0±0.1, which implies that the most probable state of the solar wind at 1 AU is not one of equipartition between the thermal energy and magnetic energy. The average total pressure for a given bulk speed(P(V)=P
k+P
k+P
B) is essentially independent of V, implying that P is not determined by the heating or acceleration mechanisms of the solar wind; the average pressure is P=(2.9±1.5)×10-10dyne/cm2. |
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