Ray tracing of ion-cyclotron waves in a coronal funnel

Abstract

Remote observations of coronal holes have strongly implicated the kinetic interactions of ion-cyclotron waves with ions as a principal mechanism for plasma heating and acceleration of the fast solar wind. In order to study these waves, a linear perturbation analysis is used in the work frame of the collisionless multi-fluid model. We consider a non-uniform background plasma describing a funnel region and use the ray tracing equations to compute the ray path of the waves as well as the spatial variation of their properties.