Solar wind compressible structures at ion scales

Abstract:

In the solar wind turbulent cascade, the energy partition between fluid and kinetic degrees of freedom, in the vicinity of plasma characteristic scales, i.e. ion and electron Larmor radius and inertial lengths, is still under debate. In a neighborhood of the ion scales, it has been observed that the spectral shape changes and fluctuations become more compressible. Nowadays, a huge scientific effort is directed to the comprehension of the link between macroscopic and microscopic scales and to disclose the nature of compressive fluctuations, meaning that if space plasma turbulence is a mixture of quasi-linear waves (as whistler or kinetic Alfvèn waves) or if turbulence is strong with formation of coherent structures responsible for dissipation.

Here we present an automatic method to identify compressible coherent structures around the ion spectral break, using Morlet wavelet decomposition of magnetic signal from Cluster spacecraft and reconstruction of magnetic fluctuations in a selected scale range. Different kind of coherent structures have been detected: from soliton-like one-dimensional structures to current sheet- or wave-like two-dimensional structures. Using a multi-satellite analysis, in order to characterize 3D geometry and propagation in plasma rest frame, we recover that these structures propagate quasi-perpendicular to the mean magnetic field, with finite velocity. Moreover, without using the Taylor hypothesis, the spatial scales of coherent structures have been estimated.

Our observations in the solar wind can provide constraints on theoretical modeling of small scale turbulence and dissipation in collisionless magnetized plasmas.