Nonlinear simulation of turbulent field lines: Dispersal statistics

Abstract

A new method for the full nonlinear computation of sets of turbulent field lines is introduced that extends the sums of random numbers distribution method previously applied to the computation of individual field lines. With a multiscale variation of the phases consistent with in situ observations of intermittent solar wind (SW) turbulence, the new method allows inclusion of the equivalent of more than four decades of turbulent scales with a fully three-dimensional distribution of wavevectors. As a first application, pairs of magnetic field lines are computed in independent realizations of the turbulence, for spectra typical of the quiet slow SW near 1 AU. The statistics of field-line dispersal are then studied from the simulated pairs of magnetic field lines and compared to earlier theoretical predictions. It appears that while the earlier theoretical picture remains relatively accurate as long as the mean variation of separation logarithm Λ is less than one, the qualitative picture is quickly altered as Λ grows past one. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society.