Calculating the Plasma Deformation Tensor and Kinetic Vorticity from Magnetic Field Time Series: Applications to the Solar Wind

Abstract

It is shown that the magnetic induction equation reduces to an autoregressive model equation. Assuming weakly ergodic field variations in steady mean plasma flow, this model permits the estimation of the mean flow deformation tensor, velocity divergence and kinetic vorticity from magnetic field time series. Applications, made to hourly-averaged, in-ecliptic interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) measurements from Ulysses spacecraft, showed that the direction of maximum deformation rate was, for most of the time, aligned to the mean field, while the vorticity tended to become perpendicular to the mean radial direction at large heliodistances.