Opie, Simon;
(2025)
Energy transfer processes in the solar wind: Kinetic-scale instabilities and wave-particle interactions in a turbulent background.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The solar wind is a continuous stream of plasma flowing radially outwards from the Sun to form the heliosphere, which is the extended atmosphere of the Sun enclosing the solar system. I utilise state-of-the-art in situ measurements of the solar wind from the Solar Orbiter (SolO) spacecraft, launched in February 2020 by the European Space Agency (ESA) with a mission to directly observe solar activity in the inner heliosphere. I employ these observational datasets to explore wave-particle interactions at kinetic scales and in particular the presence and evolution of instabilities caused by temperature anisotropies in the proton populations of the solar wind, against a background of secular, turbulent fluctuations. I use high resolution data to discover conditions in the solar wind under which certain kinetic instabilities can operate to regulate the thermal properties of the plasma. I compute the characteristic spatial and temporal scales under which these conditions become critically important. I extend this analysis to develop a robust physical description of how and where kinetic instabilities act in a turbulent background like the solar wind.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Energy transfer processes in the solar wind: Kinetic-scale instabilities and wave-particle interactions in a turbulent background |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10204385 |
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