Turner, A. J. (Andrew J.) (2013) Turbulence in the solar wind. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The solar wind provides a unique natural "laboratory" in which plasma turbulence
may be investigated in-situ. Turbulence is statistically reproducible. Thus,
in this thesis we investigate plasma turbulence in the solar wind through the statistical
study of magnetic field observations. In particular, we investigate single-satellite
time-series of the magnetic field.
We discuss hydrodynamic turbulence, and make parallels between hydrodynamic
and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. In hydrodynamic turbulence a unique
scaling relation may be determined from dimensional analysis. Importantly, one may
not derive a unique scaling relation for magnetohydrodynamic turbulence from dimensional
analysis. Therefore, comparison of observations and turbulence models
are key to determining the underlying physics for specific plasma parameters.
The inertial range is a range of scales over which energy cascades from large
to small temporal-spatial scales. This thesis will predominantly be focused on the
anisotropy and scaling of the inertial range within the solar wind. We investigate
how sampling a solenoid field, i.e. . B = 0, with a single satellite produces
an apparent nonaxisymmetry with respect to the background magnetic field. We
also investigate how time-series discontinuities produced by non-turbulent structures
alter the statistical analysis of various anisotropy measures. We will find that the
commonly held picture of the solar wind, that specific temporal-spatial scales have a
distinct physical origin, is an over simplified model. We will show that non-turbulent
structures must be removed from the observations in order to analysis the statistics
of the turbulence accurately. The work in this thesis helps to constrain theories
of plasma turbulence where there is a background magnetic field with a greater
magnitude than the root-mean-square magnitude of the turbulent
fluctuations.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Solar wind, Turbulence
Official Date:	June 2013
Dates:	Date Event June 2013 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Physics
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Chapman, Sandra C.
Sponsors:	Science and Technology Facilities Council (Great Britain) (STFC);
Extent:	x, 130 leaves : illustrations.
Language:	eng

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