Magnetosheath Plasma Turbulence and Its Spatiotemporal Evolution as Observed by the Cluster Spacecraft
Publication date: 22 March 2009
Authors: Yordanova, E., et al.,
Journal: Physical Review Letters
Volume: 100
Page: 205003
Year: 2008
Copyright: The American Physical Society
We study the plasma turbulence, at scales larger than the ion inertial length scale, downstream of a quasiparallel bow shock using Cluster multispacecraft measurements. We show that turbulence is intermittent and well described by the extended structure function model, which takes into account the spatial inhomogeneity of the cascade rate. For the first time we use multispacecraft observations to characterize the evolution of magnetosheath turbulence, particularly its intermittency, as a function of the distance from the bow shock. The intermittency significantly changes over the distance of the order of 100 ion inertial lengths, being increasingly stronger and anisotropic away from the bow shock.
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