HR: 1330h
AN: SH53A-13    [Abstracts]
TI: Velocities of Density Fluctuations in the Solar Wind
AU: * Kellogg, P J
EM: kellogg@waves.space.umn.edu
AF: University of Minnesota, School of Physics and Astronomy, Minneapolis, MN 55455 United States
AB: Density fluctuations can be measured using the potential difference between the current-biased probes and a spacecraft body. With the Cluster satellites, I have attempted to use time differences between similar fluctuation features seen with the EFW experiment on the four spacecraft to determine their velocities. It turns out that high accuracy in this determination is not possible, at least with the sampling rate which has been used to the present, as the time differences are small compared with the sampling interval when the spacecraft are close, and similar features are difficult to find when they are far apart. The 2001 period in the solar wind (Jan-Mar), when typical spacecraft separation is about 1000 km, allows some determinations. As expected, the velocities, relative to the plasma, are of the order of the ion acoustic and Alfven speeds. As these are usually similar at 1 AU, it has not yet been possible to distinguish between these possibilities.
DE: 2159 Plasma waves and turbulence
DE: 2164 Solar wind plasma
DE: 6954 Radio astronomy
DE: 7863 Turbulence
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly