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Constraining Ion-Scale Heating and Spectral Energy Transfer in Observations of Plasma Turbulence
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Constraining Ion-Scale Heating and Spectral Energy Transfer in Observations of Plasma Turbulence

Trevor A. Bowen, Alfred Mallet, Stuart D. Bale, J. W. Bonnell, Anthony W. Case, Benjamin D. G. Chandran, Alexandros Chasapis, Christopher H. K. Chen, Die Duan, Thierry Dudok De Wit, …
Physical review letters, Vol.125(2), pp.1-025102
07/10/2020
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.025102
PMID: 32701332

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Abstract

We perform a statistical study of the turbulent power spectrum at inertial and kinetic scales observed during the first perihelion encounter of the Parker Solar Probe. We find that often there is an extremely steep scaling range of the power spectrum just above the ion-kinetic scales, similar to prior observations at 1 A.U., with a power-law index of around -4. Based on our measurements, we demonstrate that either a significant (>50%) fraction of the total turbulent energy flux is dissipated in this range of scales, or the characteristic nonlinear interaction time of the turbulence decreases dramatically from the expectation based solely on the dispersive nature of nonlinearly interacting kinetic Alfven waves.
Physical Sciences Physics Physics, Multidisciplinary Science & Technology

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