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Electron heat flow carried by Kappa Distributions in the solar corona
Author(s) -
Dorelli John C.,
Scudder Jack D.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1999gl010687
Subject(s) - physics , heat flow , electron , corona (planetary geology) , flow (mathematics) , power law , electron temperature , plasma , flow velocity , mechanics , thermodynamics , thermal , nuclear physics , mathematics , astrobiology , venus , statistics
We generalize the Spitzer and Härm [1953] description of electron heat flow to model the effects of the electron velocity distribution power law tails which are frequently observed [Vasyliunas, 1968; Christon et al., 1988; Maksimovic et al., 1997] in astrophysical plasmas. We apply our generalized heat flow model to the problem of electron heat flow in the solar corona, demonstrating that a weak power law tail in the electron velocity distribution can allow heat to flow up a radially directed temperature gradient.