Kinetic turbulence in the terrestrial magnetosheath: Cluster observations

Abstract

We present a first statistical study of subproton- and electron-scale turbulence in the terrestrial magnetosheath using waveform data measured by the Cluster/STAFF search coil magnetometer in the frequency range [1, 180] Hz. It is found that clear spectral breaks exist near the electron scale, which separate two power-law-like frequency bands referred to as the dispersive and the electron dissipation ranges. The frequencies of the breaks fb are shown to be well correlated with the electron gyroscale ρ e rather than with the electron inertial length de . The distribution of the slopes below fb is found to be narrow and peaks near -2.9, while that of the slopes above fb is found to be broader, peaking near -5.2, with values as low as -7.5. This is the first time that such steep power-law spectra are reported in space plasma turbulence. These observations provide new constraints on theoretical modeling of kinetic turbulence and dissipation in collisionless magnetized plasmas. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..