ESA Science & Technology - Global Scale-Invariant Dissipation in Collisionless Plasma Turbulence

Publication date: 15 August 2009

Authors: Kiyani, K.H. et al.

Journal: Phys. Rev. Lett.
Volume: 103
Issue: 7
ID: 075006
Year: 2009

Copyright: The American Physical Society

A higher-order multiscale analysis of the dissipation range of collisionless plasma turbulence is presented using in situ high-frequency magnetic field measurements from the Cluster spacecraft in a stationary interval of fast ambient solar wind. The observations, spanning five decades in temporal scales, show a crossover from multifractal intermittent turbulence in the inertial range to non-Gaussian monoscaling in the dissipation range. This presents a strong observational constraint on theories of dissipation mechanisms in turbulent collisionless plasmas.