Articles | Volume 31, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-31-1949-2013
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-31-1949-2013
Regular paper
 | 
15 Nov 2013
Regular paper |  | 15 Nov 2013

Dispersion relation analysis of turbulent magnetic field fluctuations in fast solar wind

C. Perschke, Y. Narita, S. P. Gary, U. Motschmann, and K.-H. Glassmeier

Abstract. Physical processes of the energy transport in solar wind turbulence are a subject of intense studies, and different ideas exist to explain them. This manuscript describes the investigation of dispersion properties in short-wavelength magnetic turbulence during a rare high-speed solar wind event with a flow velocity of about 700 km s−1 using magnetic field and ion data from the Cluster spacecraft. Using the multi-point resonator technique, the dispersion relations (i.e., frequency versus wave-number values in the solar wind frame) of turbulent magnetic fluctuations with wave numbers near the inverse ion inertial length are determined. Three major results are shown: (1) the wave vectors are uniformly quasi-perpendicular to the mean magnetic field; (2) the fluctuations show a broad range of frequencies at wavelengths around the ion inertial length; and (3) the direction of propagation at the observed wavelengths is predominantly in the sunward direction. These results suggest the existence of high-frequency dispersion relations partly associated with normal modes on small scales. Therefore nonlinear energy cascade processes seem to be acting that are not described by wave–wave interactions.

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