Wavevector anisotropy of plasma turbulence at ion kinetic scales: solar wind observations and hybrid simulations
Wavevector anisotropy of ion-scale plasma turbulence is studied at various values of ion beta. Two complementary methods are used. One is multi-point measurements of magnetic field in the near-Earth solar wind as provided by the Cluster spacecraft mission, and the other is hybrid numerical simulatio...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2014-11-01
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| Series: | Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics |
| Online Access: | http://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/21/1075/2014/npg-21-1075-2014.pdf |
| Summary: | Wavevector anisotropy of ion-scale plasma turbulence is studied at various values of ion beta.
Two complementary methods are used. One is multi-point measurements
of magnetic field in the near-Earth solar wind as provided by the Cluster spacecraft mission,
and the other is hybrid numerical simulation of two-dimensional plasma turbulence.
Both methods demonstrate
that the wavevector anisotropy is reduced with increasing values of ion beta.
Furthermore, the numerical simulation study
shows the existence of a scaling law between ion beta and
the wavevector anisotropy of the fluctuating magnetic field
that is controlled by the thermal or hybrid particle-in-cell simulation noise.
Likewise, there is weak evidence that the power-law scaling
can be extended to the turbulent fluctuating cascade.
This fact can be used to construct a diagnostic tool to determine
or to constrain ion beta using multi-point magnetic field measurements in space. |
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| ISSN: | 1023-5809 1607-7946 |