HR: 14:55h
AN: SH33B-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Flux tubes in the solar wind from Cluster measurements
AU: * Li, G
EM: ganli@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Science Lab, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: * Li, G
EM: ganli@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: IGPP, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, United States
AU: Lee, E
AF: Space Science Lab, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Parks, G
EM: parks@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Science Lab, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AB: Recent studies of solar wind turbulence suggest that tangential discontinuities in the interplanetary medium can introduce significant intermittency and these discontinuities may be a natural manifestation of flux-tube-like structures in the solar wind. Because the existence of these flux tubes can affect our understanding of the solar wind MHD turbulence, it is necessary that we verify their existence and are able to identify them individually. Using the magnetic field data from FGM instrument onboard Cluster spacecraft, we examine the existence of flux tubes in the solar wind. Cluster/FGM has a high time resolution of magnetic field data and the orbits of Cluster also traverse through various dynamic regions, including the solar wind, Earth's magnetosheath and magnetotail, making Cluster's dataset ideal for studying the differences between, for example, solar wind turbulence and those inside the magnetosphere (e.g. turbulence in plasma sheet). Using a recent data analysis by {\sl Li}, [2007a,b], we show that flux tubes exist in the solar wind, but not inside Earth's magnetotial. The existence of flux-tube-like structures in the solar wind implies that current studies of solar wind MHD turbulence must be carefully re-examined because these flux tubes will inneviatablly cause intermittency and affect turbulence power spectrum.
DE: 2149 MHD waves and turbulence (2752, 6050, 7836)
DE: 2159 Plasma waves and turbulence
DE: 2164 Solar wind plasma
DE: 2169 Solar wind sources
DE: 7863 Turbulence (4490)
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting