On the scaling and anisotropy of two subranges in the inertial range of solar wind turbulence

Abstract

Intermittency and anisotropy are two important aspects of plasma turbulence, which the solar wind provides a natural laboratory to investigate. However, their forms and nature are still under debate, making it difficult to achieve a consensus in the theoretical interpretation. Here, we perform higher-order statistics for the observations in the fast solar wind at 1.48 au obtained by Ulysses and in the slow solar wind at 0.17 au obtained by Parker Solar Probe (PSP). We find that two subranges clearly exist in the inertial range and they present distinct features with regard to the intermittency and anisotropy. The subrange 1 with smaller scale has a multifractal scaling with the second index $\xi (2)\sim 2/3$ and the subrange 2 with larger scale is also multifractal but with $\xi (2)\sim 1/2$. The break between two subranges locates at the same spatial scale for both Ulysses and PSP observations. Subrange 1 is multifractal in the direction perpendicular to the local magnetic field with ${\xi }_{\perp }(2)\sim 2/3$ and seems to be monoscaling in the parallel direction with ${\xi }_{\parallel }(2)\sim 1$. Subrange 2 is multifractal in both parallel and perpendicular directions with ${\xi }_{\perp }(2)\sim 1/2$ and ${\xi }_{\parallel }(2)\sim 2/3$. Both subrange 1 and subrange 2 present power and wavevector anisotropies. The distinct features of two subranges suggest that a transition from weak to strong turbulence may occur and the spatial scale of the break may not evolve with the solar wind expansion. These new results update our knowledge of the inertial range and provide strong observational constraints on the understanding of intermittency and anisotropy in solar wind turbulence.

8 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (15)

• Anisotropic scaling of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
• The Evolution and Role of Solar Wind Turbulence in the Inner Heliosphere
• Switchbacks in the near-Sun magnetic field: long memory and impact on the turbulence cascade
• The Solar Probe Cup on Parker Solar Probe
• Imbalanced Strong MHD Turbulence
• Magnetic connectivity of the ecliptic plane within 0.5 AU : PFSS modeling of the first PSP encounter
• Critical Balance and the Physics of MHD Turbulence
• Subproton-scale Intermittency in Near-Sun Solar Wind Turbulence Observed by the Parker Solar Probe
• Nonuniversality and finite dissipation in decaying magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
• Magnetic field intermittency in the solar wind: PSP and SolO observations ranging from the Alfven region out to 1 AU
• On the evolution of the Anisotropic Scaling of Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence in the Inner Heliosphere
• Helios 2 observations of solar wind turbulence decay in the inner heliosphere
• Anisotropy of Magnetic Field Spectra at Kinetic Scales of Solar Wind Turbulence as Revealed by Parker Solar Probe in the Inner Heliosphere
• Isotropic Scaling Features Measured Locally in the Solar Wind Turbulence with Stationary Background Field
• Identification of the weak-to-strong transition in Alfvénic turbulence from space plasma