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UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
FACULTY OF PHYSICS Guest
2024-11-22 1:41 |
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Conference: Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2010 Meeting
Section: Optics, Spectroscopy, Plasma and Lasers
Title:
Testing the macroscopic transport equations for kinetic-exospheric modeling of the solar wind
Authors:
S. Bobleaca(1), G. Voitcu(2), M. Echim(2)(3)
Affiliation:
(1) Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Magurele, Romania
(2) Institute for Space Sciences, Magurele, Romania
(3) Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Brussels, Belgium
E-mail
stefy_bblc@yahoo.com
Keywords:
solar wind, kinetic exospheric model, macroscopic transport equation
Abstract:
The Sun radiates the light sustaining life on Earth and it also continually ejects in space a supersonic outflow of solar matter, i.e. fully ionized plasma, called in 1958 by Eugene Parker – the solar wind. This wind is minute by astronomical standards and it carries a very small fraction of the solar energy output. Kinetic plasma physics of the solar corona and solar wind is used to develop a model of the supersonic solar wind. Based on a self-consistent approach, the exospheric models reveal the role of the electric field in accelerating solar wind particles.
In this study we consider the exospheric model of the solar wind developed by Lamy et al. (2003) that treats protons and electrons in a non-monotonic total potential for the protons and with a Lorentzian (kappa) velocity distribution function for the electrons. From the kinetic model we derive the zero, first and second order moments that provides all the terms of the first three transport equations of the ionized gas. We show that these moments of the non-Maxwellian velocity distribution function satisfy the continuity equation, the momentum conservation and the energy conservation equations. Our results show that the kinetic exospheric models are not simply academic exercises but can provide consistent description of the supersonic solar wind and also satisfy the entire hierarchy of moment equations.
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