Intermittency in the solar wind turbulence through probability distribution functions of fluctuations

Abstract

Intermittency in fluid turbulence can be emphasized through the analysis of Probability Distribution Functions (PDF) for velocity fluctuations, which display a strong non-gaussian behavior at small scales. Castaing et al. (1990) have introduced the idea that this behavior can be represented, in the framework of a multiplicative cascade model, by a convolution of gaussians whose variances is distributed according to a log-normal distribution. In this letter we have tried to test this conjecture on the MHD solar wind turbulence by performing a fit of the PDF of the bulk speed and magnetic field intensity fluctuations calculated in the solar wind, with the model. This fit allows us to calculate a parameter λ2 depending on the scale, which represents the width of the log-normal distribution of the variances of the gaussians. The physical implications of the obtained values of the parameter as well as of its scaling law are finally discussed. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union.