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Ann. Geophys., 22, 2525-2533, 2004
www.ann-geophys.net/22/2525/2004/
© European Geosciences Union 2004


Multi-scale analysis of turbulence in the Earth's current sheet

M. Volwerk1,3, Z. Vörös1, W. Baumjohann1, R. Nakamura1, A. Runov1, T. L. Zhang1, K.-H. Glassmeier2, R. A. Treumann3, B. Klecker3, A. Balogh4, and H. Rème5
1IWF, ÖAW, Graz, Austria
2TU Braunschweig, Germany
3MPE Garching, Germany
4Imperial College, London, UK
5CESR, Toulouse, France

Abstract. A multi-scale analysis of magnetotail turbulence in the Earth's tail current sheet is presented based on Cluster magnetometer observations. Both Fourier and wavelet analysis is used to describe the spectral index and scaling indices of the turbulence for different frequency regions. Flows in the tail are very important for driving the observed turbulence. There is a strong correlation between the maximum perpendicular flow velocity and the turbulence power for maximum velocities $150{leq}v_{perp, {rm
max}}{leq}400$km/s. At higher maximum flow velocities the turbulence power levels out, showing a saturation of the generation mechanism. The suspected presence of breaks in the slope of the spectrum at two frequencies (f1 and f2) can be confirmed for f1≈0.08Hz, but based on the data analysis the second break at f2 is expected at a frequency higher than 12.5Hz, where the data cannot significantly be evaluated. A schematic turbulence power spectrum is presented based on the Cluster magnetic field measurements. Dependent on the presence of BBFs the spectral index or scaling index varies significantly.

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Citation: Volwerk, M., Vörös, Z., Baumjohann, W., Nakamura, R., Runov, A., Zhang, T. L., Glassmeier, K.-H., Treumann, R. A., Klecker, B., Balogh, A., and Rème, H.: Multi-scale analysis of turbulence in the Earth's current sheet, Ann. Geophys., 22, 2525-2533, 2004.   Bibtex   EndNote   Reference Manager

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