HelioSwarm Science Motivation: Resolving Turbulence Across Scales
- The majority of visible matter in the universe is plasma: stars (our Sun), stellar (and solar) winds, interstellar medium, accretion disks, etc.
- Three universal plasma physics processes govern all these systems:
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Magnetic Reconnection
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Shocks
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Turbulence
- These plasma processes are all highly dynamical, involving couplings between separate scales, ranging from fluid (MHD) scales to microphysical (ion and electron) scales – full understanding requires multipoint cross-scale measurements of the plasma physics
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HelioSwarm’s multipoint, cross-scale measurements of heliospheric plasmas allow direct testing of unresolved turbulence theories applicable throughout the universe