Evolution of turbulence in the expanding solar wind, a numerical study

TL;DR

This study uses 3D MHD simulations to analyze how turbulence evolves in the expanding solar wind from 0.2 to 1.5 AU, revealing spectral steepening, anisotropy, and structures similar to observations.

Contribution

First 3D numerical integration of the expanding box model for solar wind turbulence, capturing spectral evolution and anisotropy during transport.

Findings

Spectral steepening from $k^{-1}$ to $k^{-5/3}$

Development of spectral anisotropy with radial wavevector dominance

Emergence of radial streams resembling microjets

Abstract

We study the evolution of turbulence in the solar wind by solving numerically the full 3D magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) equations embedded in a radial mean wind. The corresponding equations (expanding box model or EBM) have been considered earlier but never integrated in 3D simulations. Here, we follow the development of turbulence from 0.2 AU up to about 1.5 AU. Starting with isotropic spectra scaling as $k^{-1}$, we observe a steepening toward a $k^{-5/3}$ scaling in the middle of the wavenumber range and formation of spectral anisotropies. The advection of a plasma volume by the expanding solar wind causes a non-trivial stretching of the volume in directions transverse to radial and the selective decay of the components of velocity and magnetic fluctuations. These two effects combine to yield the following results. (i) Spectral anisotropy: gyrotropy is broken, and the radial wavevectors have most of the power. (ii) Coherent structures: radial streams emerge that resemble the observed microjets. (iii) Energy spectra per component: they show an ordering in good agreement with the one observed in the solar wind at 1 AU. The latter point includes a global dominance of the magnetic energy over kinetic energy in the inertial and $f^{-1}$ range and a dominance of the perpendicular-to-the-radial components over the radial components in the inertial range. We conclude that many of the above properties are the result of evolution during transport in the heliosphere, and not just the remnant of the initial turbulence close to the Sun.