Identification of a single plasma parcel during a radial alignment of the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter

• Published in: Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) 2024-06, Vol.686
• Main Authors: Berriot, Etienne, Demoulin, Pascal, Alexandrova, Olga, Zaslavsky, Arnaud, Maksimovic, Milan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alignment; Astrophysics; Density; Heliosphere; Physics; Plasma; Solar Orbiter (ESA); Solar probes; Solar wind; Spacecraft
• ISSN: 0004-6361; 1432-0746; 1432-0756
• DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202449285

Configurations in which two spacecraft, such as the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and Solar Orbiter, are radially aligned provide opportunities for studying the evolution of a single solar wind parcel during so-called plasma line-ups. The most critical part of these studies arguably is the identification of what can be considered the same plasma crossing both spacecraft. We present here a method that allowed us to determine what we think to be the same plasma parcel that passed through PSP ($ 0.075$ au) and Solar Orbiter ($ 0.9$ au) after their radial alignment on April 29 2021. We started by modeling the plasma propagation in order to obtain a first estimation of the plasma line-up intervals. The identification of the same density structure (with a crossing duration $ 1.5$ h) that passed through the two spacecraft allowed us to specify and confirm this estimate. Our main finding is that the density structure was very stable and remained well recognizable from PSP to Solar Orbiter despite its journey of $ 137$ hours in the inner heliosphere. We found, moreover, that the slow solar wind plasma parcel was significantly accelerated (from $ 200$ to $ 300$ km/s) during its propagation.