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Turbulent Wavefield Morphology and Ion Scattering in the Magnetosheath
Author(s) -
Chaston C. C.,
Travnicek P.,
Russell C. T.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2020gl089613
Subject(s) - magnetosheath , physics , ion , computational physics , anisotropy , turbulence , magnetopause , scattering , polarization (electrochemistry) , adiabatic process , vortex , plasma , solar wind , mechanics , optics , chemistry , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
We analyze multipoint measurements in magnetosheath plasmas, just upstream of the Earth's magnetopause, to investigate the morphology of the turbulent fields and coincident 3‐D ion distributions observed. Using interferometric and generalized wave polarization analyses, we show how the fields comprise a multiscale spectrum of Alfvénic structures composed of flow shears and vortices, and current sheets and filaments advected over the spacecraft with the magnetosheath flow. It is shown how these features are correlated with intervals of enhanced ion energy, temperature anisotropy, and impulsive variations in the agyrotropy of ion velocity space distributions. It is demonstrated that the observed variation in ion properties is inconsistent with an adiabatic response but is instead correlated with the spectral energy density of nonplanar structures at ion gyroradii scales. The capacity of these field structures to scatter ions is considered.