Radial Distribution of Electron Quasi-thermal Noise in the Inner Heliosphere

Abstract

The electron population in the solar wind plasma can be described with three different components: a core, a halo, and a magnetic field aligned strahl. The electron quasi-thermal noise (QTN) is investigated by using an electron population model consisting of a core with a Maxwellian distribution and a halo with a kappa distribution, based on the empirical equations for electron density and temperature and the index for the kappa halo. The power spectra of the electron QTN are calculated at different heliocentric radial distances from 10 to 200 Rs. The dependence of the QTN spectrum and effective Debye length on model parameters, including the ratio of the halo to the core for the density and temperature, the kappa index, and the antenna length, is further discussed. The results show that the electron QTN spectrum consists of a plateau in the low-frequency band f < fpt, a peak at the total plasma frequency fpt, and a rapidly decreasing part in the high-frequency band f > fpt. The QTN peak and plateau level continuously decrease as the radial distance increases, with the peak’s shape changing due to the variation of the kappa index. Although the model parameters are variable, the QTN plateau level presents less than an order of change with these parameters changing greatly, and only a monotonic change of the plateau is shown when the parameters are close to the practical situation. The results can provide a reference for future deep-space exploration in the inner heliosphere, and also for the design of detectors.