Interplanetary magnetic Taylor microscale and implications for plasma dissipation

MATTHAEUS W.H.; WEYGAND J.M.; CHUYCHAI P.; DASSO S.; SMITH C.W.; KIVELSON M.G.

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

Año: 2008 vol. 678 p. 141 - 144

0004-637X

The Taylor microscale, a measure of mean square spatial derivatives, is evaluated for interplanetary magneticfield fluctuations from single- and multiple-point data using Cluster and ACE spacecraft data. The Taylor scaleis compared to the measured inner scale, which for hydrodynamics would correspond to the Kolmogorov scale.The results are not consistent with dissipation of the hydrodynamic type, and indicate that solar wind dissipationinvolves kinetic plasma physics at both proton and electron scales.