Description
Using 3s plasma and magnetic field data from the Wind spacecraft located in the solar wind well upstream from Earth, we report observations of isolated, pulse-like Alfvenic disturbances in the solar wind. These isolated events are characterized by roughly plane-polarized rotations in the solar wind magnetic field and velocity vectors away from the directions of the underlying field and velocity and then back again. They pass over Wind on timescales ranging from seconds to several minutes. These isolated, pulsed Alfven waves are pervasive; we have identified 175 such events over the full range of solar wind speeds (320-550km/s) observed in a randomly chosen 10 day interval.
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