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An empirical polytrope law for solar wind thermal electrons between 0.45 and 4.76 AU: Voyager 2 and Mariner 10Empirical evidence is presented that solar wind thermal electrons obey a polytrope law with polytrope index gamma = 1.175 plus or minus 0.03. The Voyager 2 and Mariner 10 data used as evidence are compared and discussed. The theoretical predictions that solar wind thermal electrons in the asymptotic solar wind should obey a polytrope law with polytrope index gamma = 1.16 plus or minus. The widespread impressions in the literature that solar wind electrons behave more like an isothermal than adiabatic gas, and the arguments that Coulomb collisions are the dominant stochastic process shaping observed electron distribution functions in the solar wind are reexamined, reviewed and evaluated. The assignment of the interplanetary potential as equal to approximately seven times the temperature of the thermal electrons is discussed.
Document ID
19800004726
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Sittler, E. C., Jr. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Scudder, J. D. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
September 4, 2013
Publication Date
November 1, 1979
Subject Category
Solar Physics
Report/Patent Number
NASA-TM-80594
Accession Number
80N12981
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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