SPECTRAL SCALING LAWS IN MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC TURBULENCE SIMULATIONS AND IN THE SOLAR WIND
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706 (United States)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
The question is addressed as to what extent incompressible magnetohydrodynamics can describe random magnetic and velocity fluctuations measured in the solar wind. It is demonstrated that distributions of spectral indices for the velocity, magnetic field, and total energy obtained from high-resolution numerical simulations of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence are qualitatively and quantitatively similar to solar wind observations at 1 AU. Both simulations and observations show that in the inertial range the magnetic field spectrum E{sub b} is steeper than the velocity spectrum E{sub v} with E{sub b} {approx}> E{sub v} and that the magnitude of the residual energy E{sub R} = E{sub v} - E{sub b} decreases nearly following a k{sup -2}{sub perpendicular} scaling.
- OSTI ID:
- 22047384
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 741, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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