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Texture of the Solar-Wind Plasma Turbulence is confined to flux tubes. Median diameter is ~5x10 5 km. Plasma in each flux tube differs. Field-line wandering is confined to inside a flux tube. Flux tubes move independently in the macroscale flow of the solar The turbulence is inside! If created by the granules, this pattern has survived intact for ~100 hours in the presence of MHD turbulence. magnetosphere

Texture of the Solar-Wind Plasma

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Texture of the Solar-Wind Plasma. Turbulence is confined to flux tubes. Median diameter is ~5x10 5 km. Plasma in each flux tube differs. Field-line wandering is confined to inside a flux tube. Flux tubes move independently in the macroscale flow of the solar wind. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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  • Texture of the Solar-Wind PlasmaTurbulence is confined to flux tubes.

    Median diameter is ~5x105 km.

    Plasma in each flux tube differs.

    Field-line wandering is confined to inside a flux tube.

    Flux tubes move independently in themacroscale flow of the solar wind.The turbulence is inside! If created by the granules, this patternhas survived intact for ~100 hoursin the presence of MHD turbulence.

  • Bruno et al. Picture of Flux Tubes and the Parker Spiral

  • Discontinuities in the Solar Wind

  • Magnetic-Field Hodogram

  • Time-Averaging: Turbulence Versus the Flux Tubes

  • Tracing these Flux Tubes back to the Surface of a Rotating SunThe flux-tubesizes correspondto solar granules.

  • Cellular Solar WindField direction differs from cell to cell (panel 1)

    Cells move independently (panel 2)

    Plasma properties differ from cell to cell (panels 3 + 4)

    Electron heat flux differs cell to cell (not shown)

    No plasma mixing across cell walls:Cell walls are boundaries to the turbulence. . Turbulence-in-a-Box .

  • The Flux Tubes Move Independent of Each Other in the Solar-Wind FlowWhere there are jumps in the field direction, there are jumps in the flow velocity.

    The different flux tubes are moving at different speeds.

  • Discontinuities Drastically Affect the Turbulence AnalysisDiscontinuity-free intervals yield different answers!