Project: Kinetic processes in the solar wind

We propose to study kinetic effects, instabilities driven by ion temperature anisotropies and ion beams, Alfvén cyclotron wave-ion interactions, and Coulomb collisions in the solar wind and their impact on the local and global properties of the solar wind. We will use linear analysis, and numerical simulations using the standard hybrid code and the hybrid expanding box model (we plan to implement to these numerical tools ion Coulomb collisions via Fokker-Plank/Langevin approach). We plan to analyze in situ observation data (WIND, HELIOS, CLUSTER II) and compare them with theoretical and simulation results. We will also continue to investigate the Earth"s magnetosheath behaviour as a useful test bed for the comparisons between theory, simulations and observations.

Funded by: AV ČR. IAA300420702

Duration: 2007-2011

Investigator: Hellinger, P.