Ion-driven instabilities in the solar wind: Wind observations of 19 March 2005

Abstract

Intervals of enhanced magnetic fluctuations have been frequently observed in the solar wind. But it remains an open question as to whether these waves are generated at the Sun and then transported outward by the solar wind or generated locally in the interplanetary medium. Magnetic field and plasma measurements from the Wind spacecraft under slow solar wind conditions on 19 March 2005 demonstrate seven events of enhanced magnetic fluctuations at spacecraft-frame frequencies somewhat above the proton cyclotron frequency and propagation approximately parallel or antiparallel to the background magnetic field Bo. The proton velocity distributions during these events are characterized by two components: a more dense, slower core and a less dense, faster beam. Observed plasma parameters are used in a kinetic linear dispersion equation analysis for electromagnetic fluctuations at k x Bo = 0; for two events the most unstable mode is the Alfvén-cyclotron instability driven by a proton component temperature anisotropy T¥/T|| > 1 (where the subscripts denote directions relative to Bo), and for three events the most unstable mode is the right-hand polarized magnetosonic instability driven primarily by ion component relative flows. Thus, both types of ion anisotropies and both types of instabilities are likely to be local sources of these enhanced fluctuation events in the solar wind. Key Points Ion temperature anisotropies and proton beam/core flows are sources of enhanced field observations For two events Alfven-cyclotron modes are most unstable For three events magnetosonic modes are most unstable.