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Article Dans Une Revue The Astrophysical journal letters Année : 2014

Kinetic Turbulence in the Terrestrial Magnetosheath: Cluster Observations

S. Y. Huang
  • Fonction : Auteur
Fouad Sahraoui
X. H. Deng
  • Fonction : Auteur
J. S. He
  • Fonction : Auteur
Z. G. Yuan
  • Fonction : Auteur
M. Zhou
Y. Pang
  • Fonction : Auteur
H.S. Fu
  • Fonction : Auteur

Résumé

We present a first statistical study of subproton- and electron-scale turbulence in the terrestrial magnetosheath using waveform data measured by the Cluster/STAFF search coil magnetometer in the frequency range [1, 180] Hz. It is found that clear spectral breaks exist near the electron scale, which separate two power-law-like frequency bands referred to as the dispersive and the electron dissipation ranges. The frequencies of the breaks fb are shown to be well correlated with the electron gyroscale rho e rather than with the electron inertial length de . The distribution of the slopes below fb is found to be narrow and peaks near -2.9, while that of the slopes above fb is found to be broader, peaking near -5.2, with values as low as -7.5. This is the first time that such steep power-law spectra are reported in space plasma turbulence. These observations provide new constraints on theoretical modeling of kinetic turbulence and dissipation in collisionless magnetized plasmas.

Dates et versions

hal-01552008 , version 1 (30-06-2017)

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Citer

S. Y. Huang, Fouad Sahraoui, X. H. Deng, J. S. He, Z. G. Yuan, et al.. Kinetic Turbulence in the Terrestrial Magnetosheath: Cluster Observations. The Astrophysical journal letters, 2014, 789, pp.L28. ⟨10.1088/2041-8205/789/2/L28⟩. ⟨hal-01552008⟩
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