Significance of bernoulli integral terms for the solar wind protons at 1 au

Georgios Nicolaou, George Livadiotis, Mihir I. Desai

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Bernoulli integral describes the energy conservation of a fluid along specific streamlines. The integral is the sum of individual terms that contain the plasma density, speed, temperature, and magnetic field. Typical solar wind analyses use the fluctuations of the Bernoulli integral as a criterion to identify different plasma streamlines from single spacecraft observations. However, the accurate calculation of the Bernoulli integral requires accurately determining the plasma polytropic index from the analysis of density and temperature observations. To avoid this complexity, we can simplify the calculations by keeping only the dominant terms of the integral. Here, we analyze proton plasma and magnetic field observations obtained by the Wind spacecraft at 1 au, during 1995. We calculate the Bernoulli integral terms and quantify their significance by comparing them with each other. We discuss potential simplifications of the calculations in the context of determining solar wind proton thermodynamics using single spacecraft observations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number4643
JournalApplied Sciences (Switzerland)
Volume11
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2 2021
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Materials Science
  • Instrumentation
  • General Engineering
  • Process Chemistry and Technology
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes

Keywords

  • Plasma dynamics
  • Solar wind
  • Space plasmas

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