Compressive turbulent cascade and heating in the solar wind

Abstract

A turbulent energy cascade has been recently identified in high-latitude solar wind data samples by using a Yaglom-like relation. However, analogous scaling law, suitably modified to take into account compressible fluctuations, has been observed in a much more extended fraction of the same data set recorded by the Ulysses spacecraft. Thus, it seems that large scale density fluctuations, despite their low amplitude, play a major role in the basic scaling properties of turbulence. The compressive turbulent cascade, moreover, seems to be able to supply the energy needed to account for the local heating of the non-adiabatic solar wind.