LASP Magnetosphere Seminars

Abstract

Solar wind turbulence has been observed in-situ over decades with single spacecraft, and now we have high quality observations from 1AU to within the orbit of Mercury, and from multiple spacecraft flotilla. Two approaches to the data are: Using the observed phenomena – solar wind turbulence – as an experiment: the observed physical process is characterized in terms of universal physical laws. Can we find new universal physics? Understanding the observed plasma phenomenology of heating and particle acceleration: observations are pulled together to form a coherent, quantitative picture that leads us to identify physical mechanisms and processes. Can turbulence and reconnection explain the heating that speeds up the solar wind, and how particles reach high energies?