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The development of magnetic field line wander by plasma turbulence

Howes, Gregory G.; Bourouaine, Sofiane

Plasma turbulence occurs ubiquitously in space and astrophysical plasmas, mediating the nonlinear transfer of energy from large-scale electromagnetic fields and plasma flows to small scales at which the energy may be ultimately converted to plasma heat. But plasma turbulence also generically leads to a tangling of the magnetic field that threads t…

The development of magnetic field line wander in gyrokinetic plasma turbulence: dependence on amplitude of turbulence

Howes, Gregory G.; Bourouaine, Sofiane

The dynamics of a turbulent plasma not only manifests the transport of energy from large to small scales, but also can lead to a tangling of the magnetic field that threads through the plasma. The resulting magnetic field line wander can have a large impact on a number of other important processes, such as the propagation of energetic particles th…

Turbulence Heating ObserveR - satellite mission proposal

Escoubet, C. P.; Vainio, R.; Eastwood, J. P. +44 more

The Universe is permeated by hot, turbulent, magnetized plasmas. Turbulent plasma is a major constituent of active galactic nuclei, supernova remnants, the intergalactic and interstellar medium, the solar corona, the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere, just to mention a few examples. Energy dissipation of turbulent fluctuations plays a key r…

Special issue: The Vlasov equation, from space to laboratory plasmas

Califano, F.; Valentini, F.; Manfredi, G.

Generalized self-similarity of intermittent plasma turbulence in space and laboratory plasmas

Zelenyi, L. M.; Savin, S. P.; Budaev, V. P.

> Statistical characteristics of plasma fluctuations in the solar wind (SW), the Earth's magnetosphere and fusion devices are reviewed. The turbulence in all these media has a complicated multiscale structure and exhibits a generalized self-similarity in an extended scale range. The anomalous transport of mass and momentum is intermittent and i…

Multipoint observations of plasma phenomena made in space by Cluster

Perri, S.; Pickett, J. S.; Sahraoui, F. +11 more

Plasmas are ubiquitous in nature, surround our local geospace environment, and permeate the universe. Plasma phenomena in space give rise to energetic particles, the aurora, solar flares and coronal mass ejections, as well as many energetic phenomena in interstellar space. Although plasmas can be studied in laboratory settings, it is often difficu…

Turbulent convective flows in the solar photospheric plasma

Giannattasio, F.; Berrilli, F.; Consolini, G. +3 more

> The origin of the 22-year solar magnetic cycle lies below the photosphere where multiscale plasma motions, due to turbulent convection, produce magnetic fields. The most powerful intensity and velocity signals are associated with convection cells, called granules, with a scale of typically 1 Mm and a lifetime of a few minutes. Small-scale mag…

Intermittency of magnetic field turbulence: Astrophysical applications of in-situ observations

Zelenyi, Lev M.; Artemyev, Anton V.; Bykov, Andrei M. +1 more

We briefly review some aspects of magnetic turbulence intermittency observed in space plasmas. Deviation of statistical characteristics of a system (e.g. its high statistical momenta) from the Gaussian can manifest itself as domination of rare large intensity peaks often associated with the intermittency in the system's dynamics. Thirty years ago,…

Plasma processes at comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko: Expectations for Rosetta

Mendis, D. A.; Horányi, M.; Horányi

The Rosetta-Philae mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 will provide a unique opportunity to observe the variable nature of the interaction of a comet with the solar radiation and the solar wind, as the comet approaches the Sun. In this short paper we will focus on the varying global structure of the cometary plasma environment. Spec…

On waves in incompressible Hall magnetohydrodynamics

Belmont, Gérard; Sahraoui, Fouad; Galtier, Sébastien

Hall magnetohydrodynamics (HMHD) is a mono-fluid approximation extending the validity domain of the ordinary MHD system to spatial scales down to a fraction of the ion skin depth or frequencies comparable to the ion gyrofrequency. In the paper by Galtier (2006 J. Plasma Physics), an incompressible limit of the HMHD system is used for developing a …