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Correlation Between the Magnetic Field and Plasma Parameters at 1 AU

  • Earth-affecting Solar Transients
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Abstract

The physical parameters of the solar wind observed in-situ near 1 AU have been studied for several decades, and relationships between them, such as the positive correlation between the solar wind plasma temperature, \(T\), and velocity, \(V\), and the negative correlation between density, \(N\), and velocity, \(V\), are well known. However, the magnetic field intensity, \(B\), does not appear to be well correlated with any individual plasma parameter. In this article, we discuss previously under-reported correlations between \(B\) and the combined plasma parameters \(\sqrt{N V^{2}} \) as well as between \(B\) and \(\sqrt{NT}\). These two correlations are strong during periods of corotating interaction regions and high-speed streams, and moderate during intervals of slow solar wind. The results indicate that the magnetic pressure in the solar wind is well correlated both with the plasma dynamic pressure and the thermal pressure.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the use of solar wind data obtained from the GSFC/SPDF OMNI Web interface at http://omniweb.gsfc.nasa.gov . This work is jointly supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41474152, 41531073 and 41774184), and the Specialized Research Fund for State Key Laboratories. FS is also supported by the National Program for Support of Top-notch Young Professionals. JZ is supported by NSF AGS-1249270 and AGS-1460188. IGR acknowledges support from the ACE project. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewer for the constructive and helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SIGMA Weather Group, State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Zicai Yang, Fang Shen, Yi Yang & Xueshang Feng

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Zicai Yang, Fang Shen & Yi Yang

  3. HIT Institute of Space Science and Applied Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Fang Shen & Xueshang Feng

  4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    Jie Zhang

  5. GPHI and Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Ian G. Richardson

  6. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA

    Ian G. Richardson

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  1. Zicai Yang
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Correspondence to Fang Shen.

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Earth-affecting Solar Transients

Guest Editors: Jie Zhang, Xochitl Blanco-Cano, Nariaki Nitta, and Nandita Srivastava

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Yang, Z., Shen, F., Zhang, J. et al. Correlation Between the Magnetic Field and Plasma Parameters at 1 AU. Sol Phys 293, 24 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-017-1238-5

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