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An empirical polytrope law for solar wind thermal electrons between 0.45 and 4.76 au: voyager 2 and mariner 10
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Scudder, J. D. Sittler Jr., E. C. |
| Copyright Year | 1979 |
| Description | Empirical evidence is presented that solar wind thermal electrons obey a polytrope law with polytrope index gamma = 1.175 plus or minus 0.03. The Voyager 2 and Mariner 10 data used as evidence are compared and discussed. The theoretical predictions that solar wind thermal electrons in the asymptotic solar wind should obey a polytrope law with polytrope index gamma = 1.16 plus or minus. The widespread impressions in the literature that solar wind electrons behave more like an isothermal than adiabatic gas, and the arguments that Coulomb collisions are the dominant stochastic process shaping observed electron distribution functions in the solar wind are reexamined, reviewed and evaluated. The assignment of the interplanetary potential as equal to approximately seven times the temperature of the thermal electrons is discussed. |
| File Size | 1376184 |
| Page Count | 25 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_19800004726 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t17m5319c |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 1979-11-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Solar Physics Coulomb Collisions Solar Electrons Stochastic Processes Electron Distribution Solar Wind Polytropic Processes Isothermal Processes Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports Server (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
