Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme

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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 14: Poster Sonne und Heliosphäre

EP 14.6: Poster

Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 16:30–19:00, Poster.V

Self-consistent wave heating of the solar wind and its inclusion into a 3-D MHD model — •Jens Kleimann — Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany

The interaction of outward-travelling Alfvén waves with the interplanetary medium has been identified as a major heating agent for the solar wind. Past attempts to model this non-linear fluid-wave interaction, which consists of both an accelerating wave pressure gradient and a direct heating by ion-cyclotron dissipation at larger heliospheric distances, have either employed purely radial models, or have condensed the waves' spectral information into one or two single scalar fields. We present first results of our recent attempts to self-consistently include this interaction into a numerical 3-D MHD solar wind model, which ultimately aims at the study of transients such as coronal mass ejections. We follow the waves' spectral shape as the system settles into a configuration reminiscent of solar minimum conditions. Questions and problems related to the model's extension to more than one spatial dimensions are discussed.