On the Calculation of the Effective Polytropic Index in Space Plasmas

Nicolaou, Georgios, Livadiotis, George and Wicks, Robert (2019) On the Calculation of the Effective Polytropic Index in Space Plasmas. Entropy, 21 (10). p. 997. ISSN 1099-4300

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/e21100997

Abstract

The polytropic index of space plasmas is typically determined from the relationship between the measured plasma density and temperature. In this study, we quantify the errors in the determination of the polytropic index, due to uncertainty in the analyzed measurements. We model the plasma density and temperature measurements for a certain polytropic index, and then, we apply the standard analysis to derive the polytropic index. We explore the accuracy of the derived polytropic index for a range of uncertainties in the modeled density and temperature and repeat for various polytropic indices. Our analysis shows that the uncertainties in the plasma density introduce a systematic error in the determination of the polytropic index which can lead to artificial isothermal relations, while the uncertainties in the plasma temperature increase the statistical error of the calculated polytropic index value. We analyze Wind spacecraft observations of the solar wind protons and we derive the polytropic index in selected intervals over 2002. The derived polytropic index is affected by the plasma measurement uncertainties, in a similar way as predicted by our model. Finally, we suggest a new data-analysis approach, based on a physical constraint, that reduces the amount of erroneous derivations.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: polytropic index; space plasmas; solar wind
Subjects: F300 Physics
F500 Astronomy
Department: Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering
Depositing User: John Coen
Date Deposited: 05 Aug 2020 12:51
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2021 12:05
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/44002

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