Turbulence-generated proton-scale structures in the terrestrial magnetosheath

Abstract

Recent results of numerical magnetohydrodynamic simulations suggest that in collisionless space plasmas turbulence can spontaneously generate thin current sheets. These coherent structures can partially explain intermittency and the non-homogenous distribution of localized plasma heating in turbulence. In this Letter Cluster multi-point observations are used to investigate the distribution of magnetic field discontinuities and the associated small-scale current sheets in the terrestrial magnetosheath downstream of a quasi-parallel bow shock. It is shown experimentally, for the first time, that the strongest turbulence generated current sheets occupy the long tails of probability distribution functions (PDFs) associated with extremal values of magnetic field partial derivatives. During the analyzed one hour long time interval, about a hundred strong discontinuities, possibly proton-scale current sheets were observed.

arXiv comment10 pages, 5 figures in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 819, Number 1, 2016

References in corpus (4)

• Magnetic Reconnection and Intermittent Turbulence in the Solar Wind
• Intermittent Dissipation and Local Heating in the Solar Wind
• A global study of hot flow anomalies using Cluster multi-spacecraft measurements
• Occurrence Rates and Heating Effects of Tangential and Rotational Discontinuities as Obtained from Three-dimensional Simulation of Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Nature of Kinetic Scale Turbulence in the Earth's Magnetosheath
• Electron scale structures and magnetic reconnection signatures in the turbulent magnetosheath
• The Importance of Electron Landau Damping for the Dissipation of Turbulent Energy in Terrestrial Magnetosheath Plasma
• Kinetic turbulence in fast 3D collisionless guide-field magnetic reconnection
• A possible link between turbulence and plasma heating
• MMS Observations of Whistler and Lower Hybrid Drift Waves Associated with Magnetic Reconnection in the Turbulent Magnetosheath