On the Radial Evolution of the Solar Wind : The Source Alignment Method Applied to Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter Observations

TL;DR

This study introduces a new source alignment technique to analyze Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter data, revealing significant solar wind acceleration beyond 15 solar radii and correlations with plasma parameters.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel source alignment method that improves statistical analysis of solar wind evolution using in-situ spacecraft data.

Findings

Solar wind speed increases by 45% per radial decade between the two spacecraft.

The radial evolution of electron temperature and plasma density strongly anti-correlates with velocity increase.

The new method identifies 548 alignment intervals, enhancing statistical significance.

Abstract

The properties of the solar wind, as measured in situ throughout the heliosphere, depend both on the characteristics of its coronal source and on the intrinsic processes governing its interplanetary evolution. Recently, radial and Parker spiral alignment techniques have been applied to Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and Solar Orbiter (SO) observations to investigate the radial evolution of the same solar wind parcel. These studies have shown that the solar wind can undergo significant acceleration even beyond its primary acceleration region (i.e., above 15 solar radii). However, such radial and Parker spiral alignments are rare in practice, which limits the statistical significance and general applicability of the results. We introduce a new source alignment technique designed to overcome these limitations. Using magnetic backmapping, we associate similar solar wind streams observed by the two spacecraft based on the proximity of their photospheric footpoints, combined with additional in-situ stream similarity criteria. Applying the source alignment method to PSP and SO observations, we identify a total of 548 alignment intervals, each lasting 30 minutes. By constructing statistics over all alignments, we find that the solar wind speed increases by an average of 45% per radial decade (approximately 147 km/s) between the two probes. This result demonstrates that solar wind acceleration in the inner heliosphere remains significant compared to that occurring below 15 solar radii. Among the different studied plasma parameters, the radial evolution of the electron temperature and plasma density, show the strongest anti-correlation with the increase in bulk velocity.