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- Title
On the Calculation of the Effective Polytropic Index in Space Plasmas.
- Authors
Nicolaou, Georgios; Livadiotis, George; Wicks, Robert T.
- 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.
- Subjects
PLASMA sheaths; SPACE plasmas; PLASMA density; PLASMA temperature; STATISTICAL errors; TEMPERATURE measurements; SOLAR wind
- Publication
Entropy, 2019, Vol 21, Issue 10, p997
- ISSN
1099-4300
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/e21100997