Number density structures in the inner heliosphere

TL;DR

This study provides the first statistical in-situ analysis of number density structures in the inner heliosphere, revealing their properties, scales, and occurrence exclusively in slow solar wind.

Contribution

It introduces a new dataset of proton moments from Helios and identifies the properties and scales of density structures in the inner heliosphere for the first time.

Findings

Number density structures occur only in slow solar wind.

Structures range from 50 Mm to 2000 Mm in size.

They are denser, hotter, and in pressure balance with the surrounding plasma.

Abstract

The origins and generation mechanisms of the slow solar wind are still unclear. Part of the slow solar wind is populated by "number density structures", discrete patches of increased number density that are frozen in to and move with the bulk solar wind. In this paper we aimed to provide the first in-situ statistical study of number density structures in the inner heliosphere. We reprocessed in-situ ion distribution functions measured by Helios in the inner heliosphere to provide a new reliable set of proton plasma moments for the entire mission. From this new data set we looked for number density structures measured within 0.5 AU of the Sun and studied their properties. We identified 140 discrete areas of enhanced number density. The structures occurred exclusively in the slow solar wind and spanned a wide range of length scales from 50 Mm to 2000 Mm, which includes smaller scales than have been previously observed. They were also consistently denser and hotter that the surrounding plasma, but had lower magnetic field strengths, and therefore remained in pressure balance. Our observations show that these structures are present in the slow solar wind at a wide range of scales, some of which are too small to be detected by remote sensing instruments. These structures are rare, accounting for only 1\% of the slow solar wind measured by Helios, and are not a significant contribution to the mass flux of the solar wind.