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AGU: Journal of Geophysical Research, Space Physics

 

Keywords

  • magnetized turbulence
  • kinetic plasmas
  • solar wind

Index Terms

  • Space Plasma Physics: Turbulence
  • Space Plasma Physics: Wave/particle interactions
  • Space Plasma Physics: Kinetic and MHD theory
  • Interplanetary Physics: Solar wind plasma
Abstract
Cited By (10)
 

Abstract

A model of turbulence in magnetized plasmas: Implications for the dissipation range in the solar wind

G. G. Howes

Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA

S. C. Cowley

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

Plasma Physics Group, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London, UK

W. Dorland

Department of Physics, IREAP, and Center for Scientific Computing and Mathematical Modeling, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

G. W. Hammett

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

E. Quataert

Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA

A. A. Schekochihin

Plasma Physics Group, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London, UK

This paper studies the turbulent cascade of magnetic energy in weakly collisional magnetized plasmas. A cascade model is presented, based on the assumptions of local nonlinear energy transfer in wave number space, critical balance between linear propagation and nonlinear interaction times, and the applicability of linear dissipation rates for the nonlinearly turbulent plasma. The model follows the nonlinear cascade of energy from the driving scale in the MHD regime, through the transition at the ion Larmor radius into the kinetic Alfvén wave regime, in which the turbulence is dissipated by kinetic processes. The turbulent fluctuations remain at frequencies below the ion cyclotron frequency due to the strong anisotropy of the turbulent fluctuations, k ∥ ≪ k ⊥ (implied by critical balance). In this limit, the turbulence is optimally described by gyrokinetics; it is shown that the gyrokinetic approximation is well satisfied for typical slow solar wind parameters. Wave phase velocity measurements are consistent with a kinetic Alfvén wave cascade and not the onset of ion cyclotron damping. The conditions under which the gyrokinetic cascade reaches the ion cyclotron frequency are established. Cascade model solutions imply that collisionless damping provides a natural explanation for the observed range of spectral indices in the dissipation range of the solar wind. The dissipation range spectrum is predicted to be an exponential fall off; the power-law behavior apparent in observations may be an artifact of limited instrumental sensitivity. The cascade model is motivated by a program of gyrokinetic simulations of turbulence and particle heating in the solar wind.

Received 23 July 2007; accepted 28 January 2008; published 23 May 2008.

Citation: Howes, G. G., S. C. Cowley, W. Dorland, G. W. Hammett, E. Quataert, and A. A. Schekochihin (2008), A model of turbulence in magnetized plasmas: Implications for the dissipation range in the solar wind, J. Geophys. Res., 113, A05103, doi:10.1029/2007JA012665.

Cited By

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