Statistical study of electron density turbulence and ion-cyclotron waves in the inner heliosphere: Solar Orbiter observations

TL;DR

This study analyzes Solar Orbiter data to characterize electron density turbulence and ion-cyclotron waves in the inner heliosphere, revealing varying turbulence regimes and wave activity effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of Empirical Mode Decomposition to study turbulence and intermittency in solar wind electron density using Solar Orbiter data.

Findings

Presence of a well-defined inertial range with power-law scaling.

Partial observation of Kolmogorov scaling and typical intermittency effects.

Enhanced ion wave activity correlates with irregular turbulence spectra.

Abstract

The recently released spacecraft potential measured by the RPW instrument on-board Solar Orbiter has been used to estimate the solar wind electron density in the inner heliosphere. Solar-wind electron density measured during June 2020 has been analysed to obtain a thorough characterization of the turbulence and intermittency properties of the fluctuations. Magnetic field data have been used to describe the presence of ion-scale waves. Selected intervals have been extracted to study and quantify the properties of turbulence. The Empirical Mode Decomposition has been used to obtain the generalized marginal Hilbert spectrum, equivalent to the structure functions analysis, and additionally reducing issues typical of non-stationary, short time series. The presence of waves was quantitatively determined introducing a parameter describing the time-dependent, frequency-filtered wave power. A well defined inertial range with power-law scaling has been found almost everywhere. However, the Kolmogorov scaling and the typical intermittency effects are only present in part of the samples. Other intervals have shallower spectra and more irregular intermittency, not described by models of turbulence. These are observed predominantly during intervals of enhanced ion frequency wave activity. Comparisons with compressible magnetic field intermittency (from the MAG instrument) and with an estimate of the solar wind velocity (using electric and magnetic field) are also provided to give general context and help determine the cause for the anomalous fluctuations.