Global Multi-fluid Solar Corona Model with Temperature Anisotropy

Abstract:

The mechanisms that heat and accelerate the fast and slow wind have not yet been conclusively identified. Plasma properties of Helium in the solar wind are critical tracers for both processes so that understanding them is key towards gaining insight in the solar wind phenomenon, and being able to model it and predict its properties. We present a generalization of the AWSoM model, a global solar corona model with low-frequency Alfvén wave turbulence (van der Holst et al., 2014) to include alpha-particle dynamics. To apportion the wave dissipation to the isotropic electron temperature, parallel and perpendicular ion temperatures, we employ the results of the theories of linear wave damping and nonlinear stochastic heating as described by Chandran et al. (2011, 2013). We account for the instabilities due to the developing temperature anisotropies for the protons (Meng et al., 2012) and alpha particles (Verscharen et al., 2013). We discuss the feasibility for Alfvén wave turbulence to simultaneously address the coronal heating and alpha-proton differential streaming.