Characteristics of Turbulent Solar Wind Flow in Plasma Compression Regions

Abstract

This work is devoted to the study of properties of spectra of turbulent solar wind fluctuations in plasma compression regions, such as CIR (the plasma compression regions in front of high-speed streams from coronal holes) and SHEATH (the compression regions in front of interplanetary manifestations of coronal mass ejections EJECTA and magnetic clouds MC). The spectra of ion flux fluctuations, on both magnetohydrodynamic and ion-kinetic scales, are considered on the basis of data from the BMSW spectrometer on the SPEKTR-R spacecraft with a high (up to 31 ms) time resolution. The comparison of turbulent characteristics in the plasma compression regions and in the undisturbed solar wind is carried out both on a separate example and using extensive statistical material. It is shown in the paper that the turbulent cascade characteristics on the kinetic interval can significantly change in the plasma compression regions, and the signatures of a change in the main processes that determine the energy dissipation are revealed in them, which may cause increased heating in the regions under consideration.