Radial Evolution of Turbulent Fluctuations Near Sun Using Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter Measurements

Authors: Monika Karki (UAH), Gary P. Zank (UAH), Ben Altermann (NASA), Laxman Adhikari (UAH)

We investigate the radial evolution of the turbulent fluctuations in the inner heliosphere using Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter observations over heliocentric distances of ~ 32 to 90 solar radii. We decomposed the measured fluctuations of density, velocity, and magnetic field into eight fundamental magnetohydrodynamic modes using the linear mode decomposition technique. The mode-resolved energy result shows that the fluctuation energy is highly field-dependent: velocity fluctuations are primarily Alfvénic, with both forward and backward Alfvén modes exhibiting relatively shallow radial decay, whereas magnetic fluctuations are dominated by transverse nonpropagating incompressible/magnetic-island-like components. In contrast, density fluctuations are mainly governed by fast magnetosonic modes, while entropy and slow magnetosonic contributions remain comparatively weaker and decay more rapidly with heliocentric distance. We find that the variance anisotropy of the transverse magnetic-island mode  and the Alfv\’en modes increases slightly with heliocentric distance.