Reduction of drift effects due to solar wind turbulence

Abstract

Gradient and curvature drift play a key role in the modulation of cosmic rays. Reduction in the drift coefficient due to turbulence has been demonstrated unambiguously through direct numerical simulations, but a theory that can explain these results is still lacking. We introduce a parameterized form of the drift coefficient based on direct numerical simulations and show that good agreement with observed proton energy spectra at Earth can be found when it is used in a numerical modulation model.We show that the turbulence ultrascale, for which no observations currently exist, plays an important role in drift reduction. The magnitude at Earth and spatial dependence of this quantity required to fit cosmic-ray observations at Earth are argued to be plausible based on the required properties of the two-dimensional turbulence spectrum at large scales. © 2010 The American Astronomical Society.