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doi:10.5194/npg-12-75-2005
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Modeling of short scale turbulence in the solar wind
1Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore 560 034, India
2Institute for Fusion Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
Abstract. The solar wind serves as a laboratory for investigating magnetohydrodynamic turbulence under conditions irreproducible on the terra firma. Here we show that the frame work of Hall magnetohydrodynamics (HMHD), which can support three quadratic invariants and allows nonlinear states to depart fundamentally from the Alfvénic, is capable of reproducing in the inertial range the three branches of the observed solar wind magnetic fluctuation spectrum - the Kolmogorov branch f -5/3 steepening to f -α1 with
on the high frequency side and
flattening to f -1 on the low frequency side. These fluctuations are found
to be associated with the nonlinear Hall-MHD Shear Alfvén waves. The spectrum
of the concomitant whistler type fluctuations is very different from the
observed one. Perhaps the relatively stronger damping of the whistler
fluctuations may cause their unobservability. The issue of equipartition of
energy through the so called Alfvén ratio acquires a new status through its
dependence, now, on the spatial scale.Full Article (PDF, 219 KB) Special Issue
Citation: Krishan, V. and Mahajan, S. M.: Modeling of short scale turbulence in the solar wind, Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 12, 75-81, doi:10.5194/npg-12-75-2005, 2005. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
