The Principal Investigator (PI) plans to investigate plasma turbulence in the solar wind, solar corona, and throughout the heliosphere by using spacecraft data and simulations. His research team will study turbulent dissipation processes in order to determine how propagating kinetic Alfven waves (KAWs) cause heating of solar wind protons. These results may also be relevant to the processes that heat the solar corona.
The PI's team will use data from the Cluster spacecraft to study several important problems in plasma turbulence. These problems include the determination of the specific wavenumbers at which protons are heated by turbulence, the factors determining the form of the magnetic helicity spectrum in the kinetic regime, and whether stochastic heating by a particular KAW spectrum is a viable mechanism for the perpendicular heating of thermal protons in the solar wind. The PI will compare the predictions of theory and simulations for the form of the KAW spectrum in the vicinity of the spectral break and determine how these predictions compare with real solar wind observations.
The PI's team will integrate their research with education by participating in the 'Los Alamos Earth and Space Science Academy' (LAESSA) outreach program, which provides training to New Mexico middle school science teachers. Scientific results will also be disseminated through publications in scientific journals and through presentations at community workshops and meetings.
