Alfven Waves and Turbulence in the Solar Atmosphere and Solar Wind

Abstract

We solve the problem of propagation and dissipation of Alfvenic turbulence in a model solar atmosphere consisting of a static photosphere and chromosphere, transition region, and open corona and solar wind, using a phenomenological model for the turbulent dissipation based on wave reflection. We show that most of the dissipation for a given wave-frequency spectrum occurs in the lower corona, and the overall rms amplitude of the fluctuations evolves in a way consistent with observations. The frequency spectrum, for a Kolmogorov-like slope, is not found to change dramatically from the photosphere to the solar wind, however it does preserve signatures of transmission throughout the lower atmospheric layers, namely oscillations in the spectrum at high frequencies reminiscent of the resonances found in the linear case. These may disappear once more realistic couplings for the non-linear terms are introduced, or if time-dependent variability of the lower atmospheric layer is introduced.