431 research outputs found
Magnetic Fluctuations and Turbulence in the Venus Magnetosheath and Wake
Recent research has shown that distinct physical regions in the Venusian
induced magnetosphere are recognizable from the variations of strength and of
wave/fluctuation activity of the magnetic field. In this paper the statistical
properties of magnetic fluctuations are investigated in the Venusian
magnetosheath, terminator, and wake regions. The latter two regions were not
visited by previous missions. We found 1/f fluctuations in the magnetosheath,
large-scale structures near the terminator and more developed turbulence
further downstream in the wake. Location independent short-tailed non-Gaussian
statistics was observed.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure
Intermittent turbulence, noisy fluctuations and wavy structures in the Venusian magnetosheath and wake
Recent research has shown that distinct physical regions in the Venusian
induced magnetosphere are recognizable from the variations of strength of the
magnetic field and its wave/fluctuation activity. In this paper the statistical
properties of magnetic fluctuations are investigated in the Venusian
magnetosheath and wake regions. The main goal is to identify the characteristic
scaling features of fluctuations along Venus Express (VEX) trajectory and to
understand the specific circumstances of the occurrence of different types of
scalings. For the latter task we also use the results of measurements from the
previous missions to Venus. Our main result is that the changing character of
physical interactions between the solar wind and the planetary obstacle is
leading to different types of spectral scaling in the near-Venusian space.
Noisy fluctuations are observed in the magnetosheath, wavy structures near the
terminator and in the nightside near-planet wake. Multi-scale turbulence is
observed at the magnetosheath boundary layer and near the quasi-parallel bow
shock. Magnetosheath boundary layer turbulence is associated with an average
magnetic field which is nearly aligned with the Sun-Venus line. Noisy magnetic
fluctuations are well described with the Gaussian statistics. Both
magnetosheath boundary layer and near shock turbulence statistics exhibit
non-Gaussian features and intermittency over small spatio-temporal scales. The
occurrence of turbulence near magnetosheath boundaries can be responsible for
the local heating of plasma observed by previous missions
Wavelet analysis of magnetic turbulence in the Earth's plasma sheet
Recent studies provide evidence for the multi-scale nature of magnetic
turbulence in the plasma sheet. Wavelet methods represent modern time series
analysis techniques suitable for the description of statistical characteristics
of multi-scale turbulence. Cluster FGM (fluxgate magnetometer) magnetic field
high-resolution (~67 Hz) measurements are studied during an interval in which
the spacecraft are in the plasma sheet. As Cluster passes through different
plasma regions, physical processes exhibit non-steady properties on
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and small, possibly kinetic scales. As a consequence,
the implementation of wavelet-based techniques becomes complicated due to the
statistically transitory properties of magnetic fluctuations and finite size
effects. Using a supervised multi-scale technique which allows existence test
of moments, the robustness of higher-order statistics is investigated. On this
basis the properties of magnetic turbulence are investigated for changing
thickness of the plasma sheet.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
- …