Authors: Bart van der Holst (Boston University), Merav Opher (Boston University)
The global outer heliosphere model in the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) describes the dynamics of the thermal solar wind protons, pickup ions (PUIs), electrons, neutrals, and incompressible turbulence. The turbulence energy is enhanced via isotropization of newly born PUIs. This increased turbulence can further heat the thermal solar wind protons and electrons. We have extended this model to nearly incompressible turbulent transport throughout the solar wind and heliosheath as developed by Zank et al. (2017) and Adhikari et al. (2023). This amounts to including time evolution for the variance of the density fluctuations coupled to the turbulence transport. We discuss evolution of the variance of the density fluctuations and the impact of nearly incompressible turbulence on the solar wind and heliosheath.
