Alfvén waves as the dominant waves in the solar wind plasma have been intensively investigated as a diagnostic of interplanetary plasma characteristics. Experimental observations show the nonlinear and stochastic character of Alfvén waves propagated in the solar wind plasma. This fact requires to use of numerical methods for solving the problems connected with Alfvén wave propagation and their statistical analysis.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of realistic
plasma parameters on the relaxation process of Alfvén waves at distances
larger then 1 AU.
Numerical solution of the MHD problem and
comparison with experimental results can help to define the dominant
effects and most importantly the plasma characteristics, namely hydro- and
magnetic- viscosities, kinetic effects and compressibility.
This work is supported by the Israel Basic Research Commission and is the
Ph.D. dissertation topic of Ms Irena Ruvinsky.