On the Motion of the Heliospheric Magnetic Structure through the Solar
Wind Plasma
Abstract
A reference frame in the solar wind can often be found wherein the flow
vector is everywhere approximately parallel to the magnetic-field vector
. This is the frame of the heliospheric magnetic structure moving
relative to the plasma. Since v perpendicular is very small in this
reference frame, the magnetic structure appears to have little temporal
evolution. The structure moves outward away from the Sun faster than the
plasma flow. Even for highly Alfvénic plasma, the structure does not
move at the Alfvén speed relative to the proton plasma, rather it moves
at ~0.7vA. The degree of inhomogeneity of the plasma is
hypothesized to control the motion of the magnetic structure through the
plasma. If so, non-Alfvénicity may be owed to an inability of Alfvénic
perturbations to coherently propagate from Alfvénic injections at the
Sun. Schemes that mathematically advect magnetic and plasma structure
from upstream-solar-wind monitors to the Earth may be improvable by
calculating and including the motion of the structure relative to the
solar-wind velocity vector.