Work during the final few years of the grant were plagued by delays and inefficiencies due to COVID.  We (the PI, Co-I and students working on the grant) were unable to sit face-to-face to work out the details of a complex computer code.  Early results compute using a code written for this project (we will call this Code2) demonstrated that the correlation scale of third-moment functions describing the turbulent cascade in the solar wind for the first time, and this placed much of the previous research we have already performed onto a much firmer footing.  We found that the correlation scale is far shorter for third moments than it is for the primitive variables (velocity, density, and magnetic field) and this leads to two implications: (1) that the cascade is not correlated across the inertial-range scales, and (2) the nonlinear dynamics are much stronger than previously argued leading to spectral transfer in both direction to larger and smaller scales.  The more traditional estimations of the energy cascade rate represent the average rate only, which is germane to the heating rate, but underestimates the nonlinear dynamics of the inertial range.  It was decided that Code2 should not be modified to perform the remainder of the proposed analysis.  Also, the original code that had published our original results which were used as motivation for this proposal (we will call this Code1) had passed through too many hands to be editable.  We therefore decided that we needed to write a new third code to perform the remainder of the proposed research.  We will call this Code3.  This new code required numerous functional abilities that Code 2 did not possess and that Code1 could not perform.  We spent the remainder of our efforts developing this code and testing it against our previous results.  It was problematic.  Code3 contains processing decisions that were not present in either Code1 or Code2.  Some of these decisions were central to the analysis and could not be removed.  It was only in the weeks leading up to filing our final report that we finally decided we were getting correct results from Code3.  Much of this would have been more efficient if we had been able to meet and review the code together.  This is a source of great frustration to us.  However, we believe we now have a working Code3, and we can now complete the addition of the necessary functionality needed to perform the remainder of the proposed research.  It disturbs the PI greatly that we have not completed our promises, but using internal funds we are determined to perform the remainder of the proposed research and complete our promises.  A more detailed listing of our results, papers published, and talks given is available in the more extensive final report.

Last Modified: 01/24/2022
Modified by: Charles W Smith