Multi-spacecraft measurement of anisotropic power levels and scaling in solar wind turbulence

Abstract

Measurements by the four Cluster spacecraft in the solar wind are used to determine quantitatively the field-aligned anisotropy of magnetohydrodynamic inertial range turbulence power levels and spectral indexes. We find, using time-lagged second order structure functions, that the spectral index is near 2 around the field-parallel direction, which is consistent with a "critical balance" turbulent cascade. Solar wind fluctuations are found to be anisotropic with power mainly in wavevectors perpendicular to the mean field, where the spectral index is around 5/3. © 2009 Author(s).