In the realm of energy journalism, it’s crucial to stay abreast of scientific research that could potentially impact the energy sector. Today, we’re going to delve into a recent study that could influence our understanding of solar wind, a phenomenon that has implications for space weather and, consequently, our energy infrastructure on Earth.
The researchers behind this study are Roger B. Scott, Stephen J. Bradshaw, Mark G. Linton, Chris Lowder, and Leonard Strachan, all affiliated with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Their work focuses on the hydrodynamic aspects of solar wind, a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun.
The team has revisited the governing hydrodynamic equations for the expanding solar wind, incorporating classical Newtonian viscous stress. This inclusion is significant because it eliminates singularities that emerge from inviscid (non-viscous) equations at the sonic point, a critical threshold where the solar wind’s speed transitions from subsonic to supersonic. These singularities have previously posed a challenge to efficient solar wind modeling.
Previous studies have used this viscous approach to generate solar wind profiles, but they often overlooked realistic treatments of the inner corona and were hesitant to extrapolate solutions outward from the Sun into the heliosphere. However, the researchers in this study have expanded this method to include external heating and optically thin radiative losses. This advancement allows solutions to be computed from initial conditions near the solar surface, capturing the entire range of scales from below the transition region to the outer heliosphere in a single solution.
The team cast the steady-state Navier-Stokes equations as a system of five coupled, ordinary differential equations (ODEs), which they solved using conventional methods. This approach eliminates the need for special treatment of the governing equations near the sonic point. The representative solutions presented in the study demonstrate the utility and efficiency of this extrapolation method, which is considerably more realistic than commonly used analytical or empirical models.
So, what does this mean for the energy sector? Improved solar wind models can enhance our understanding of space weather, which can have significant impacts on Earth’s power grids, satellites, and other energy infrastructure. By providing a more accurate and efficient method for generating solar wind profiles, this research could contribute to better space weather forecasting and, ultimately, improved energy security.
This research was published in the journal Physics of Plasmas. As always, it’s important to note that while this research is promising, it’s just one step in a larger process of understanding and mitigating the impacts of space weather on our energy systems.
This article is based on research available at arXiv.