W. M. Macek: Information on Research Work
 

Characterization of main scientific achievements:

• Prediction of existence of a distant Jovian magnetospheric tail and its interaction with the Saturn's magnetosphere when the spacecraft Voyager 2 approached Saturn in 1981, see Figure 1.

  In particular, we have shown that the tail is very long and wide enough to engulf Saturn [Grzedzielski, Macek, Oberc, Nature, 292, 615, 1981]. The Voyager data have confirmed these predictions [Grzedzielski, Macek, J. Geophys. Res., 89, 2369, 1984]. Using a hydromagnetic model we have also explained the gross features of the cross-tail dimensions and the shape of the tail boundary (flattening), the average magnetic field and plasma characteristics in the distant terrestrial and Jovian magnetotails, in agreement with the ISEE and Voyager observations, respectively [Grzedzielski, Macek, J. Geophys. Res., 93, 1795, 1988; Macek, Astron. Astrophys., 199, 329, 1988; Macek, Geophys. Res. Lett., 16, 1249, 1989].

• Participation in discovery and interpretation of plasma waves observed at Neptune by the spacecraft Voyager 2 in 1989 [Gurnett et al., Science, 246, 1494, 1989; Adv. Space Res., 12, 47, 1992].

• Model for generation of very low-frequency (2-3 kHz) radio emissions in the outer heliosphere discovered by deep space probes Voyager 1 i 2 in 1983-1984 and 1992-1993 [Macek et al., J. Geophys. Res., 96, 3801, 1991; Macek et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 18, 357, 1991; Macek, Geophys. Res. Lett., 21, 249, 1994; Macek, Space Sci. Rev, 76, 231; 1996; Treumann, Macek, Izmodenov, Astron. Astrophys., 336, L45, 1998], see Figure 2, taken from The Voyager Neptune Travel Guide, JPL Publ. 89-24.

• Identification and analysis of multifractal structure of the solar wind. We have shown that the velocity fluctuations of the low-speed solar wind streams in the inner heliosphere can approximately be described by the low-dimensional attractor [Macek, Physica D 122, 254, 1998], see Figure 3, with a positive Kolmogorov entropy [Macek, Redaelli, Phys. Rev. E 62, 6496, 2000], and a multifractal spectrum [Macek et al., Phys. Rev. E 72, 017202, 2005] that exhibits intermittency (Macek, Space. Res. Rev., 122, 329, 2006; (Macek, Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 14, 695, 2007;

• A new model for turbulence cascade based on two-scale weighted Cantor set (Macek, Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 14, 695, 2007; Macek, Szczepaniak, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L02108, see Figure. 4;
  
  
• The generalized Lorenz model (Macek and Strumik, Physical Review E, 027301, 2010), for hyperchaotic (Macek and Strumik, Physical Review Letters 112, 074502, 2014) hydromagnetic convection.
  
  
• Analysis of multifractal structure of the solar wind in the heliosphere (Macek and Wawrzaszek, J. Geophys. Res., 114, A03108, 2009), at the termination heliospheric shock (Macek et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L19103, 2011), and in the entire healiosheath (Macek et al., J. Geophys. Res., 117, A12101, 2012) even near the heliopause, Astrophys. J. Lett. 793, L30, 2014); modelling physical processes at the heliopause recently discovered by Voyager 1 (NASA, 12 September 2013), Strumik et al., Astrophys. J. Lett. 773, L23, 2013 and 782, L7, 2014.
  

 

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