Turbulent Heating in the Solar Wind and in the Solar Corona

Abstract

In this paper we calculate the turbulent heating rates in the solar wind using the Kolmogorov-like MHD turbulence phenomenology with Kolmogorov's constants calculated by {\it Verma and Bhattacharjee }[1995b,c]. We find that the turbulent heating can not account for the total heating of the nonAlfvénic streams in the solar wind. We show that dissipation due to thermal conduction is also a potential heating source. Regarding the Alfvénic streams, the predicted turbulent heating rates using the constants of {\it Verma and Bhattacharjee }[1995c] are higher than the observed heating rates; the predicted dissipation rates are probably overestimates because Alfvénic streams have not reached steady-state. We also compare the predicted turbulent heating rates in the solar corona with the observations; the Kolmogorov-like phenomenology predicts dissipation rates comparable to the observed heating rates in the corona [{\it Hollweg, }% 1984], but Dobrowoly et al.'s generalized Kraichnan model yields heating rates much less than that required.