Modeling the heating and the acceleration of the fast solar wind ion

Abstract:

The solar wind is the major component of solar activity and is the variable background state for the propagating solar disturbances that affect the heliosphere and interact with planetary magnetospheres. However, the physical mechanisms of solar wind acceleration and heating are not fully understood. During periods of solar maxima streamers dominate the solar corona and the slow solar wind streams are ubiquitous in the heliosphere. The ion composition and the charge states of the solar wind streams measured in situ and are used to determine their coronal origin. The physical properties of the multi-ion solar wind plasma and turbulent wave spectra are modeled with multifluid models, while the kinetic processes that lead to solar wind ion heating by resonant waves and instabilities are modeled with 2.5 hybrid models that include the kinetic ion wave-particle interactions and ion-cyclotron wave heating processes. We will show recent results of multi-fluid and hybrid models constrained by remote sensing and in situ observations of the solar wind and discuss how this modeling approach improves understanding of the heating and acceleration processes of the solar wind.