On the polarization state of hydromagnetic fluctuations in the solar wind

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Abstract
From presently available observations one can infer that the Alfvénic turbulence measured in the solar wind, predominantly on trailing edges of high‐speed streams, is a mixture of modes with two different polarizations, namely, Alfvénic modes and modes which are the incompressible limit of slow magnetosonic waves. Using Helios 2 magnetic data and a variance analysis, we have separated parallel (to the mean field) and perpendicular components of the fluctuations and studied the possible correlation between such components which would be predicted as a consequence of the incompressible character of the turbulence. Correlations between eigenvalues of the variance matrix are also investigated and discussed.