Solar wind current sheets and deHoffmann-Teller analysis: First results of DC electric field measurements by Solar Orbiter

TL;DR

This study evaluates Solar Orbiter's low-frequency DC electric field measurements and demonstrates how deHoffmann-Teller analysis can estimate solar wind speed, enhancing understanding of solar wind dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate solar wind speed from Solar Orbiter's electric and magnetic field data using deHoffmann-Teller analysis and an empirical model for antenna length.

Findings

Electric field measurements are of high quality and correlate well with magnetic field variations.

A model relating effective antenna length to plasma parameters improves solar wind speed estimates.

deHoffmann-Teller analysis enables solar wind speed estimation without plasma data.

Abstract

Solar Orbiter was launched on February 10, 2020 with the purpose of investigating solar and heliospheric physics using a payload of instruments designed for both remote and in-situ sensing. Similar to the recently launched Parker Solar Probe, and unlike earlier missions, Solar Orbiter carries instruments designed to measure the low frequency DC electric fields. In this paper we assess the quality of the low-frequency DC electric field measured by the Radio and Plasma Waves instrument (RPW) on Solar Orbiter. In particular we investigate the possibility of using Solar Orbiter's DC electric and magnetic field data to estimate the solar wind speed. We use deHoffmann-Teller (HT) analysis based on measurements of the electric and magnetic fields to find the velocity of solar wind current sheets which minimizes a single component of the electric field. By comparing the HT velocity to proton velocity measured by the Proton and Alpha particle Sensor (PAS) we develop a simple model for the effective antenna length, $L_\text{eff}$ of the E-field probes. We then use the HT method to estimate the speed of the solar wind. Using the HT method, we find that the observed variations in $E_y$ are often in excellent agreement with the variations in the magnetic field. The magnitude of $E_y$, however, is uncertain due to the fact that the $L_\text{eff}$ depends on the plasma environment. We derive an empirical model relating $L_\text{eff}$ to the Debye length, which we can use to improve the estimate of $E_y$ and consequently the estimated solar wind speed. The low frequency electric field provided by RPW is of high quality. Using deHoffmann-Teller analysis, Solar Orbiter's magnetic and electric field measurements can be used to estimate the solar wind speed when plasma data is unavailable.