English

Solar wind turbulent spectrum from MHD to electron scales

Space Physics 2015-05-14 v1 Plasma Physics

Abstract

Turbulent spectra of magnetic fluctuations in the free solar wind are studied from MHD to electron scales using Cluster observations. We discuss the problem of the instrumental noise and its influence on the measurements at the electron scales. We confirm the presence of a curvature of the spectrum expkρe\sim \exp{\sqrt{k\rho_e}} over the broad frequency range [10,100]\sim[10,100] Hz, indicating the presence of a dissipation. Analysis of seven spectra under different plasma conditions show clearly the presence of a quasi-universal power-law spectrum at MHD and ion scales. However, the transition from the inertial range k1.7\sim k^{-1.7} to the spectrum at ion scales k2.7\sim k^{-2.7} is not universal. Finally, we discuss the role of different kinetic plasma scales on the spectral shape, considering normalized dimensionless spectra.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0912.2668,
  title  = {Solar wind turbulent spectrum from MHD to electron scales},
  author = {O. Alexandrova and J. Saur and C. Lacombe and A. Mangeney and S. J. Schwartz and J. Mitchell and R. Grappin and P. Robert},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0912.2668},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

to be published in "Solar Wind 12 Proceedings", AIP Conference Proceedings, 2010