Fractal dissipation of small-scale magnetic fluctuations in solar wind turbulence as seen by CLUSTER

Journal Article · Thu Mar 25 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3395819· OSTI ID:21371707

Kiyani, K; Chapman, S ^[1]; Khotyaintsev, Y ^[2]; Dunlop, M ^[3]; Sahraoui, F ^[4]

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1. Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL (United Kingdom)
2. Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala (Sweden)
3. Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot (United Kingdom)
4. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 673, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States)

A robust multiscale analysis of high-frequency magnetic field measurements from the Cluster spacecraft is presented using complimentary measurements from the magnetometer and search-coil instruments; in a stationary interval of fast ambient solar wind. We show a surprising and novel result: that for time-scales smaller than the ion-gyro period the magnetic field fluctuations exhibit non-Gaussian monoscaling i.e. are globally scale invariant and can be characterized by a single scaling exponent and thus a single universal scaling function for the probability density. This presents new questions, as well as theoretical constraints, for determining how magnetic turbulent energy is dissipated in collisionless plasmas.

• OSTI ID: 21371707
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1216, Issue 1; Conference: 12. international solar wind conference, Saint-Malo (France), 21-26 Jun 2009; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3395819; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ASTROPHYSICS
COLLISIONLESS PLASMA
ENERGY LOSSES
FLUCTUATIONS
FRACTALS
INTERPLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELDS
IONS
MAGNETOMETERS
PROBABILITY
SCALE INVARIANCE
SOLAR WIND
SPACE VEHICLES
TURBULENCE
CHARGED PARTICLES
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
LOSSES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
PHYSICS
PLASMA
SOLAR ACTIVITY
STELLAR ACTIVITY
STELLAR WINDS
VARIATIONS
VEHICLES