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MHD Compressive Turbulence in the Solar Wind and the Nearly Incompressible Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

B. Bavassano
Affiliation:
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, CNR via G. Galilei, CP 27, 00044 Frascati, Italy
R. Bruno
Affiliation:
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, CNR via G. Galilei, CP 27, 00044 Frascati, Italy
H. Rosenbauer
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie Postfach20, D-37189, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany

Abstract

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At MHD scales density fluctuations in the solar wind generally have a relative amplitude less than 0.1. The nearly incompressible MHD theory would seem then appropriate to describe a major part of the compressive turbulence at these scales. As a test of the theory, we focus on the scaling properties of density fluctuations with turbulent Mach numbers and on the level of correlation between density and temperature fluctuations. Our findings do not appear in favour of an extended applicability of the nearly incompressible theory to MHD compressive turbulence in the solar wind.

Type
Numerical Modelling
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1997

References

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