Published March 22, 2023 | Version v1
Poster Open

NIRwave: A wave-turbulence-driven solar wind model constrained by Parker Solar Probe observations

  • 1. University of Vienna
  • 2. Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP)

Description

Stellar winds represent one of the essential phenomena shaping exoplanet atmospheres over evolutionary timescales. However, as the winds of solar analogues are very weak, we need to characterise them and the effects they have on exoplanet atmospheres through model descriptions of the solar wind. We present NIRwave, a solar wind model based on coupling the general MHD code NIRVANA to an explicit wave-turbulence-driven heating mechanism. Our model is constrained by observational data from the Parker Solar Probe (PSP). The adapted heating mechanism is based on the interaction and subsequent dissipation of counter-propagating Alfvén waves in the solar corona, accounting for a turbulent heating rate as a driving mechanism of the solar wind. The solar magnetic field is assumed to be an axisymmetric dipole. NIRwave is able to successfully reproduce the characteristic bimodal structure of the solar wind. Despite implementing simplified conditions representing the coronal magnetic field and initial parameters of the simulation domain, the parameters characterising our steady-state solution agree with previously established results and empirical constraints. In a comparison to a polytropic wind model based on the unmodified version of NIRVANA, we find that our NIRwave model is in better agreement with the observational constraints derived by us. As this model relies on simplified assumptions about the nature of the solar wind, it could be utilised to derive the wind parameters of a wide range of solar-type stars, including targets of upcoming exoplanet missions such as Ariel and PLATO. Observationally constrained physical models like NIRwave are necessary to constrain the stellar wind environments of exoplanets observed by future facilities such as ESA’s Ariel mission.

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