[FPSPACE] FW: UWarwick: 40-Year-Old Mariner 5 Solar-Wind Problem Finds Answer

[Paolo Ulivi]

a preprint of the paper is available here
http://arxiv.org/abs/1106.2023


On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 7:32 AM, LARRY KLAES <ljk4 at msn.com> wrote:

>
>
> > Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:37:41 -0400
> > Subject: UWarwick: 40-Year-Old Mariner 5 Solar-Wind Problem Finds Answer
> > From: rick.fienberg at aas.org
> > To: Rick.Fienberg at aas.org
> >
> > THE FOLLOWING RELEASE WAS RECEIVED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK IN
> > COVENTRY, U.K., AND IS FORWARDED FOR YOUR INFORMATION. (FORWARDING
> > DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT BY THE AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY.) Rick
> > Fienberg, AAS Press Officer: rick.fienberg at aas.org, +1 202-328-2010
> > x116.
> >
> > 26 August 2011
> >
> > Media Contact:
> > Peter Dunn
> > Communications Office
> > p.j.dunn at warwick.ac.uk
> > +44 (0)24 76 523708; cell: +44 (0)7767 655860
> >
> > ** Science contacts appear below. **
> >
> > Text & Image:
> > http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/40_year_old
> >
> > 40 YEAR OLD MARINER 5 SOLAR WIND PROBLEM FINDS
> > ANSWER: TURBULENCE DOESN’T GO WITH THE FLOW
> >
> > Research led by astrophysicists at the University of Warwick has
> > resolved a 40 year old problem with observations of turbulence in the
> > solar wind first made by the probe Mariner Five. The research resolves
> > an issue with what is by far the largest and most interesting natural
> > turbulence lab accessible to researchers today.
> >
> > Our current understanding tells us that turbulence in the solar wind
> > should not be affected by the speed and direction of travel of that
> > solar wind. However when the first space probes attempted to measure
> > that turbulence they found their observations didn’t quite match that
> > physical law. The first such data to be analyzed from Mariner 5 in
> > 1971 found a small but nonetheless irritatingly clear pattern in the
> > turbulence perpendicular to both the direction of the travel and the
> > magnetic field the solar wind was travelling through.
> >
> > While it was an irritating aberration the effect was relatively small
> > and has been essentially ignored by physicists until now. However the
> > most recent space missions to look at the solar wind, such as the
> > Cluster mission, are examining it with such sensitive and highly
> > accurate modern instrumentation that what was once a small aberration
> > was threatening to become a significant stumbling block to us getting
> > a deeper understanding of what is going on in the solar wind -- which
> > is effectively the solar system’s largest and most interesting natural
> > turbulence lab.
> >
> > Research led by Andrew Turner and Professor Sandra Chapman in Centre
> > for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics at the University of Warwick has
> > found a solution to this 40 year old problem. The research team looked
> > at data from the Cluster mission and they also created a virtual model
> > of how magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence builds up in the solar
> > wind. They then flew a virtual space probe through that virtual model
> > in a range of directions unlike the single direction of travel open to
> > a probe such as Mariner 5.
> >
> > University of Warwick researcher Andrew Turner said that what they
> > found was that: “The analysis clearly showed that when all these
> > results were considered together any correlation between changes in
> > the turbulence in the solar wind and the direction of travel simply
> > disappeared. The observed non-axisymmetric anisotropy may simply arise
> > as a sampling effect of using just one probe taking a single
> > particular path through the solar wind.”
> >
> > # # #
> >
> > The research paper entitled “Non-axisymmetric Anisotropy of Solar Wind
> > Turbulence” is published in Physical Review Letters and is by A. J.
> > Turner, S. Chapman, B. Hnat (Centre for Fusion, Space and
> > Astrophysics, University of Warwick); G. Gogoberidze (Centre for
> > Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, University of Warwick, and the
> > Institute of Theoretical Physics, Ilia State University); and W. C.
> > Müller (Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik):
> > http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v107/i9/e095002
> >
> > Science Contacts:
> > Andrew Turner
> > Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics
> > University of Warwick
> > +44(0)75251 63843
> > a.j.turner at warwick.ac.uk
> >
> > Prof Sandra Chapman
> > Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics
> > University of Warwick
> > +44 (0)24 76523390
> > s.c.chapman at warwick.ac.uk
> >
> > Image credit: European Space Agency
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> > and space science should be sent to the same address. Rick Fienberg,
> > AAS Press Officer, +1 202-328-2010 x116, @AAS_Press (Twitter).
>
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