Solar Wind Turbulence: Its Origins, Evolution, and Impacts

Currently, there is an unprecedented opportunity to study plasma turbulence in space, as man made spacecrafts are now capable of making a close approach to the Sun and even reaching the very boundary of the interstellar medium. Thanks to a burgeoning variety of data and powerful supercomputers, the exploration of one of the most difficult and mysterious problems of modern physics – turbulence – is now much more accessible. Solar winds, highly non-linear dynamical phenomena of magnetized plasma with turning eddies covering a huge scale separation from one AU to the kinetic dissipation scales, have been known to be turbulent for decades. However, many fundamental questions still need to be explored, as we don’t even have a clear definition of turbulence itself. Where does solar wind turbulence originate? How does it evolve while it is propagating outward? What are its impacts on fluid dynamics and particles? Those questions are of particular interest to space science and missions.

The goal of this collection is to answer key questions on solar wind turbulence, from the solar surface to the outer heliosphere, with the most cutting-edge measurements, simulations, theories, hypotheses, and debates.

In this Research Topic, we welcome original research studies and reviews on solar wind turbulence, including, but not limited to: (1) measurements of the plasma properties of solar winds, (2) theories and modeling of turbulence development, (3) plasma instabilities and wave modes in solar winds, (4) propagation and evolution of solar wind turbulence; (5) impacts of solar wind turbulence, for example, on magnetic structures, particle acceleration, and the cosmic ray transport, etc. We especially welcome comprehensive manuscripts with detailed data, methodology, and/or theories. The contributions to this Research Topic will lead to a better understanding of the questions about and importance of solar wind turbulence.