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The wave telescope is a multi-spacecraft method that uses multi-point magnetic field data to estimate a spectrum in k-space, allowing for the detection of waves as well as turbulence. So far, the wave telescope has been applied to the Cluster and MMS four-spacecraft missions around Earth. In the future, it can be used for multi-scale plasma missions incorporating larger numbers of spacecraft. Such are the accepted Helioswarm mission as well as the proposed Plasma Observatory. Due to the more complicated nature of the wave telescope analysis of multi-scale spacecraft configurations, there is a need to study such systems beforehand using as-realistic-as-possible artificial data. Such an artificial 2D or 3D dataset can be provided by Vlasiator, a Hybrid-Vlasov global magnetospheric simulation treating electrons as a fluid and protons being described by distribution functions. We apply the wave telescope to spacecraft configurations both different in number and position and determine the quality of detection of foreshock plasma waves simulated by Vlasiator.

Large scale solar wind (SW) structures called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and Stream Interaction Regions (SIRs) propagate through the interplanetary medium, where they might impact Earth and cause jet-like disturbances in the magnetosheath. Such jets are short scale structures characterized by an enhancement in dynamic pressure that propagate through the Earth’s magnetosheath (EMS) transporting mass, momentum and energy being able to affect and perturb the Earth’s magnetosphere.Jets have been studied for 20 years, but how different SW conditions triggered by CMEs and SIRs affect jet production is a topic that has only recently begun to be studied. In this work we characterize jets observed by THEMIS during a CME and a SIR passage. We find clear differences in number and size between the jets associated with the CME regions arriving at the EMS as well as in comparison with the characteristics of jets associated with the SIR passage. Comparing WIND and THEMIS data we discuss how these differences are linked to the SW conditions in the context of a recent statistical study (Koller et al. 2022) and with different jet generation mechanisms.

We use density deduced from spacecraft potential to study the power spectral density (PSD) of fluctuations in the solar wind. Typically plasma measurements do not have high enough time resolutions to resolve ion kinetic scales. However, calibrated spacecraft potential allows much higher time resolutions to resolve the spectral break between ion inertial and kinetic ranges. Fast Survey mode data from Magnetospheric MultiScale data are used when the spacecraft were in the pristine solar wind. We find that the density spectra' morphology differs from the magnetic field fluctuations, with a flattening often occurring between inertial and kinetic ranges. We find that the spectral break of the trace magnetic field fluctuations occurs near the expected frequency for cyclotron resonance or magnetic reconnection. Meanwhile, the spectral break at the start of the ion kinetic range for density fluctuations is often at a higher frequency when compared to the magnetic field. We discuss possible interpretations for these observations. Two plausible scenarios are presented; 1. the compressive fluctuations consist of a slow wave cascade at large scales before kinetic Alfven waves become dominant at smaller scales 2. charge separation begins to occur at these scales, and the Hall electric field starts to play a role.

Large-scale solar wind (SW) structures like coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and stream interaction regions (SIRs) significantly alter the plasma within the Earth’s magnetosheath and change the foreshock region. Thus, they modulate the number and the parameters of dynamic pressure transients in the magnetosheath, which we call magnetosheath jets. We use THEMIS spacecraft data from 2008 to 2022 to detect these jets in the magnetosheath and OMNI data for the SW within the same time range. We investigate which properties in each SW structure primarily influence the jet occurrence. We find that CMEs cause a reduction in jet occurrence due to the mix of high magnetic field strength, high plasma beta, low Mach number, and high cone angles. These conditions most likely disrupt the building of a proper foreshock region and thus hinder the major generation mechanism for jets in the magnetosheath. On the other hand, high speed streams in SIRs show favorable conditions for jet generation in all plasma parameters, most importantly due to the high probability for low cone angles, the low density, high velocity, and low magnetic field strength. We analyze how the jet parameters differ in each type of SW structure and discuss how this influences the geoeffectiveness of jets.

Wind power plant sizes, hub heights, and turbine ratings have increased since 2008 to optimize the cost and performance of wind power; however, the limits of these economies of scale remain unclear. Here, we explore how the costs incurred to install turbines at a wind power plant—the balance-of-system (BOS) costs—scale with turbine rating, hub height, and plant size. We also investigate how these changes in BOS costs influence the levelized cost of energy (LCOE). We show that increasing the plant size from 150 to 400 MW could reduce the BOS costs by 21%. We also show that if the foundation costs decreased by 50%, building a wind power plant with 5-MW turbines (having rotor diameters of 166 m and hub heights of 120 m) could decrease the LCOE by 5%. These results could help inform future BOS cost-reduction opportunities and thereby reduce future capital costs for land-based wind power.

The foreshock, extending upstream of the quasi-parallel shock and populated with shock-reflected particles, is home to intense wave activity in the ultra-low frequency range. The most commonly observed of these waves are the "30-second" waves, fast magnetosonic waves propagating sunward in the plasma rest frame, but carried earthward by the faster solar wind flow. These waves are thought to be the main source of Pc3 magnetic pulsations (10 – 45 s periods) in the dayside magnetosphere, but how the waves can transmit through the bow shock and across the magnetosheath remains unclear. Global hybrid-Vlasov simulations performed with the Vlasiator model provide us with the global view of foreshock wave transmission across near-Earth space. We find that the foreshock waves act as fast-mode pulses hammering periodically the shock, which impulsively sends perturbations in the downstream at the fast-mode speed. These fast-mode disturbances propagate in the magnetosheath all the way to the magnetopause, where they can further transmit into the dayside magnetosphere. The wave propagation across the bow shock appears to be much more complex than the simple "direct transmission" of the foreshock waves which was inferred in early studies. This is due to the complex two-way interactions between the waves and the shock, including shock reformation. We compare our global simulation results with local 1D simulations, and we show that the wave signatures in the downstream strongly depend on the global properties of the shock-magnetosheath system. This emphasises the importance of carrying out global simulations in this context.

Localized enhancements in dynamic pressure observed in the Earth’s magnetosheath (EMS) have been studied since 20 years ago. These structures known as jets can propagate through the EMS transporting mass, momentum and energy being able to reach and perturb the Earth’s magnetopause. Large scale solar wind (SW) structures called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) travel through the interplanetary medium and depending on their direction they may impact the Earth. How the different SW conditions triggered by the CMEs (upstream side – shock/sheath – magnetic ejecta) change the production of jets in the EMS is a topic that is just beginning to be explored. In this case study we characterize jets observed by THEMIS A, E and D during a CME passage. We find clear differences in number and size between the jets associated with the different CME regions arriving at the EMS. Comparing WIND and THEMIS data we discuss how these differences are associated with the SW conditions and with different jet generation mechanisms.

The Cluster II mission was launched in 2000 to study three-dimensional space plasma processes. Over the past two decades, the Cluster spacecraft have collected data from various near-Earth space plasmas, including the solar wind. During the lifetime of the mission, the inter-spacecraft distances of Cluster in the solar wind have changed from the large scales (∼ 10,000 km) where fluid physics dominates the turbulent fluctuations, down to the scales of protons (∼ 200 km). More recently, as part of the Guest Investigator (GI) campaign, the mission achieved a novel formation where a pair of spacecraft were separated by ∼7 km, close to electron scales. The small distances and the exceptional sensitivity of the search coil magnetometer provide an excellent data set for studying solar wind turbulence at electron scales. This study will investigate intermittency of the magnetic field fluctuations in the slow wind from fluid to kinetic scales, using both time-lagged increments from a single spacecraft and spatially lagged increments using multiple spacecraft. As the turbulent cascade proceeds to smaller scales in the inertial range, the deviation from Gaussian statistics is observed to increase in both temporal and spatial increments. At ion scales, there is a maximum of kurtosis, and at sub-ion scales, the fluctuations are only weakly non-Gaussian. The observations show differences in kurtosis of time and space increments, indicating its spatial anisotropy.

A grand-challenge problem at the forefront of physics is to understand how energy is transported and transformed in plasmas. This fundamental research priority encapsulates the conversion of plasma-flow and electromagnetic energies into particle energy, either as heat or some other form of energisation. The smallest characteristic scales, at which electron dynamics determines the plasma behaviour, are the next frontier in space and astrophysical plasma research. The analysis of astrophysical processes at these scales lies at the heart of the field of electron-astrophysics. Electron scales are the ultimate bottleneck for dissipation of plasma turbulence, which is a fundamental process not understood in the electron-kinetic regime. Since electrons are the most numerous and most mobile plasma species in fully ionised plasmas and are strongly guided by the magnetic field, their thermal properties couple very efficiently to global plasma dynamics and thermodynamics., Comment: White Paper for the Voyage 2050 Long-Term Plan in the ESA Science Programme; 27 pages

The twisted local magnetic field at the front or rear regions of the magnetic clouds (MCs) associated with interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) is often nearly opposite to the direction of the ambient interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). There is also observational evidence for magnetic reconnection (MR) outflows occurring within the boundary layers of MCs. In this paper a MR event located at the western flank of the MC occurring on 2000-10-03 is studied in detail. Both the large-scale geometry of the helical MC and the MR outflow structure are scrutinized in a detailed multi-point study. The ICME sheath is of hybrid propagation-expansion type. Here the freshly reconnected open field lines are expected to slip slowly over the MC resulting in plasma mixing at the same time. As for MR, the current sheet geometry and the vertical motion of the outflow channel between ACE-Geotail-WIND spacecraft was carefully studied and tested. The main findings on MR include: (1) First-time observation of non-Petschek-type slow-shock-like discontinuities in the inflow regions; (2) Observation of turbulent Hall magnetic field associated with a Lorentz force deflected electron jet; (3) Acceleration of protons by reconnection electric field and their back-scatter from the slow shock-like discontinuity; (4) Observation of relativistic electron near the MC inflow boundary/separatrix; these electron populations can presumably appear as a result of non-adiabatic acceleration, gradient B drift and via acceleration in the electrostatic potential well associated with the Hall current system; (5) Observation of Doppler shifted ion-acoustic and Langmuir waves in the MC inflow region., 43 pages, 10 figures, accepted in J. Geophys. Res. - Space Phys

Optimizing turbine layout is a challenging problem that has been extensively researched in the literature. However, optimizing the number of turbines within a given boundary has not been studied as extensively and is a difficult problem because it introduces discrete design variables and a discontinuous design space. An essential step in performing wind power plant layout optimization is to define the objective function, or value, that is used to express what is valuable to a wind power plant developer, such as annual energy production, cost of energy, or profit. In this paper, we demonstrate the importance of selecting the appropriate objective function when optimizing a wind power plant in a land-constrained site. We optimized several different wind power plants with different wind resources and boundary sizes. Results show that the optimal number of turbines varies drastically depending on the objective function. For a simple, one-dimensional, land-based scenario, we found that a wind power plant optimized for minimal cost of energy produced just 72 % of the profit compared to the wind power plant optimized for maximum profit, which corresponded to a loss of about USD 2 million each year. This paper also compares the performance of several different optimization algorithms, including a novel repeated-sweep algorithm that we developed. We found that the performance of each algorithm depended on the number of design variables in the problem as well as the objective function.

We investigate compressive turbulence at sub-ion scales with measurements from the Magnetospheric MultiScale Mission. The tetrahedral configuration and high time resolution density data obtained by calibrating spacecraft potential allow an investigation of the turbulent density fluctuations in the solar wind and their three-dimensional structure in the sub-ion range. The wave-vector associated with the highest energy density at each spacecraft frequency is obtained by application of the Multi-point signal resonator technique to the four-point density data. The fluctuations show a strong wave-vector anisotropy $k_{\perp}\gg k_{\parallel}$ where the parallel and perpendicular symbols are with respect to the mean magnetic field direction. The plasma frame frequencies show two populations, one below the proton cyclotron frequency $\omega \Omega_{ci}$ consistent with ion Bernstein wave (IBW) turbulence. Alternatively, these fluctuations may constitute KAWs that have undergone multiple wave-wave interactions causing a broadening in the plasma frame frequencies. The scale-dependent kurtosis in this wave-vector region shows a reduction in intermittency at the small scales which can also be explained by the presence of wave activity. Our results suggest that small-scale turbulence exhibits linear-wave properties of kinetic Alfv\'en and possibly ion-Bernstein/magnetosonic waves. Based on our results, we speculate that these waves may play a role in describing the observed reduction in intermittency at sub ion scales., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures Accepted to Physical Review Research

Turbulent density fluctuations are investigated in the solar wind at sub-ion scales using calibrated spacecraft potential. The measurement technique using the spacecraft potential allows for a much higher time resolution and sensitivity when compared to direct measurements using plasma instruments. Using this novel method, density fluctuations can be measured with unprecedentedly high time resolutions for in situ measurements of solar wind plasma at 1 a.u. By investigating 1 h of high-time resolution data, the scale dependant kurtosis is calculated by varying the time lag τ to calculate increments between observations. The scale-dependent kurtosis is found to increase towards ion scales but then plateaus and remains fairly constant through the sub-ion range in a similar fashion to magnetic field measurements. The sub-ion range is also found to exhibit self-similar monofractal behavior contrasting sharply with the multi-fractal behavior at large scales. The scale-dependent kurtosis is also calculated using increments between two different spacecraft. When the time lags are converted using the ion bulk velocity to a comparable spatial lag, a discrepancy is observed between the two measurement techniques. Several different possibilities are discussed including a breakdown of Taylor’s hypothesis, high-frequency plasma waves, or intrinsic differences between sampling directions.

Spacecraft potential has often been used to infer electron density with much higher time resolution than is typically possible with plasma instruments. However, recently two studies by Torkar et al. 2017 and Graham et al. 2018 have shown that external electric fields can also have an effect on the spacecraft potential by enhancing photoelectron escape from the surface. Consequently, should the electron density derived from the spacecraft potential be used during an event with a large electric field, the estimation would be contaminated and the user would see the effects of the electric field rather than density perturbations. The goal of this paper is to propose a method to remove the electric field effects to allow the density derived from spacecraft potential to be used even during large amplitude wave events such as Langmuir waves or upper hybrid waves., Comment: Published in JGR Space Physics

Compressive plasma turbulence is investigated at sub-ion scales in the solar wind using both the Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) instrument on the Magnetospheric MultiScale mission (MMS), as well as using calibrated spacecraft potential data from the Spin Plane Double Probe (SDP) instrument. The data from FPI allow a measurement down to the sub-ion scale region ($f_{sc}\gtrsim 1$ Hz) to be investigated before the instrumental noise becomes significant at a spacecraft frame frequency of $f_{sc}\approx 3$Hz, whereas calibrated spacecraft potential allows a measurement up to $f_{sc}\approx 40$Hz. In this work, we give a detailed description of density estimation in the solar wind using the spacecraft potential measurement from the SDP instrument on MMS. Several intervals of solar wind plasma have been processed using the methodology described which are made available. One of the intervals is investigated in more detail and the power spectral density of the compressive fluctuations is measured from the inertial range to the sub-ion range. The morphology of the density spectra can be explained by either a cascade of Alfv\'en waves and slow waves at large scales and kinetic Alfv\'en waves at sub-ion scales, or more generally by the Hall effect. Using electric field measurements the two hypotheses are discussed., Comment: Accepted to APJS

The foreshock is a region of intense wave activity, situated upstream of the quasi-parallel sector of the terrestrial bow shock. The most common type of waves in the Earth's ion foreshock are quasi-monochromatic fast magnetosonic waves with a period of about 30 s. In this study, we investigate how the foreshock wave field is modified when magnetic clouds, a subset of coronal mass ejections driving the most intense geomagnetic storms, interact with near-Earth space. Using observations from the Cluster constellation, we find that the average period of the fast magnetosonic waves is significantly shorter than the typical 30 s during magnetic clouds, due to the high magnetic field strength inside those structures, consistent with previous works. We also show that the quasi-monochromatic waves are replaced by a superposition of waves at different frequencies. Numerical simulations performed with the hybrid-Vlasov model Vlasiator consistently show that an enhanced upstream magnetic field results in less monochromatic wave activity in the foreshock. The global view of the foreshock wave field provided by the simulation further reveals that the waves are significantly smaller during magnetic clouds, both in the direction parallel and perpendicular to the wave vector. We estimate the transverse extent of the waves using a multi-spacecraft analysis technique and find a good agreement between the numerical simulations and the spacecraft measurements. This suggests that the foreshock wave field is structured over smaller scales during magnetic clouds. These modifications of the foreshock wave properties are likely to affect the regions downstream - the bow shock, the magnetosheath and possibly the magnetosphere - as foreshock waves are advected earthward by the solar wind.

Electric field properties of the kinetic Alfvén mode are analytically studied by constructing the dielectric tensor of the plasma using the linear Vlasov theory and reducing (and identifying) the tensor elements into that of the fluid picture such as the polarization drift, the Hall current, and the diamagnetic current. Off-diagonal dielectric responses do not primarly contribute to the dispersion relation of the kinetic Alfvén mode, but play an important role in the electric field polarization (field rotation sense around the mean magnetic field) and parallel component of the field. The polarization becomes more circular and the parallel component enhances at larger perpendicular wavenumbers. Analytic expression of fluctuation sense serves as a tool to identify the kinetic Alfvén mode in space plasma observations.

Twisted magnetic flux ropes embedded in an interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) often contain oppositely oriented magnetic fields and potentially reconnecting current sheets. Reconnection outflows in the solar wind can be identified through magnetic field and plasma signatures, for example, through decreasing magnetic field magnitude, enhanced bulk velocity, temperature and (anti)correlated rotations of the magnetic field and plasma velocity. We investigate a reconnection outflow observed by ACE, WIND and Geotail spacecraft within the interaction region of two flux ropes embedded into an ICME. The SOHO spacecraft, located 15 RE upstream, 120 RE in GSE Y and 5 RE in GSE Z direction from the ACE spacecraft, does not see any plasma signatures of the reconnection outflow. At the same time the other spacecraft, also separated by more than 200 RE in X and Y GSE directions, observe strong plasma and magnetic field fluctuations at the border of the exhaust. The fluctuations could be associated with Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability at the border of the reconnection outflow with strong flow shear. It is speculated that the KH instability driven fluctuations and dissipation is responsible for stopping the reconnection outflow which is therefore not seen by SOHO.

Compressible plasma turbulence is investigated at sub ion scales using both the Fast Plasma Investigation instrument on the Magnetospheric MultiScale mission as well as using calibrated spacecraft potential. The data from FPI allow inertial and a small region of sub-ion scales to be investigated before the instrumental noise becomes significant near 3Hz. In this work we give a detailed description of the spacecraft potential and how it is calibrated such that it can be used the measure the electron density. The key advantage of using the calibrated spacecraft potential is that a much higher time resolution is possible when compared to the direct measurement. This allows a measurement down to 40Hz for a measurement of the electron density. This is an improvement of an additional decade in scale. Using a one hour interval of solar wind burst mode data the power spectrum of the density fluctuations is measured from the inertial range to the sub ion range. At inertial scales the density spectrum shows similarities with the magnetic field power spectrum with a characteristic Kolmogorov like power law. In between the ion inertial and kinetic scales there is a brief flattening in the spectra before steepening in the sub ion range to a spectral index comparable to the trace magnetic field fluctuations. The morphology if the density spectra can be explained by either a cascade of Alfv\'en waves and slow waves at large scales and kinetic Alfv\'en waves at sub ion scales, or by the presence of the hall effect. Using electric field measurements the two hypotheses are tested.

We investigate magnetic compression near the reconnection separatrix observed by Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) on July 11th 2017. A clear transition between inflow and outflow in both ions and electrons is observed across an ion gyro-scale region of enhanced magnetic field. Multispacecraft techniques for magnetic curvature and local gradients along with timing of highly-correlated wave packets are used to determine the spatial configuration of the compressed region. Structure of the system is found to be inherently three dimensional; electron beam-driven modes propagating parallel to the magnetic field are observed concurrent with perpendicular-propagating lower hybrid waves. Larger scale surface waves are also present behind the compression front. Transforming to a deHoffmann-Teller frame across the boundary results in a distinctly non-rotational discontinuity with structure similar to a quasi-2D, Petschek-like slow shock. However, MHD jump conditions are not satisfied, indicating kinetic dissipation may occur within the thin layer. The largest amplitude measurements of $\mathbf{J}\cdot\mathbf{E}$ energy conversion are associated with an inflowing electron beam and parallel electric fields near the magnetic peak. Spikes in $\mathbf{J}\cdot\mathbf{E}$ are predominantly negative, suggesting electron-scale mixing between the reconnection inflow and outflow is partially responsible for the observed magnetic compression.

Turbulence in the Earth’s magnetosheath at ion kinetic scales is investigated with the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) spacecraft. The multi-point measurements allow the three dimensional power spectra in wave-vector space to be determined. Previously the three dimensional structure of fluctuations in the magnetic field and density (using spacecraft potential as a proxy) were possible with Cluster. However, using the excellent time resolution data set provided from both the Fluxgate Magnetometer (FGM) and the Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) on MMS the spectra can be determined for a number of different parameters such as ion velocity, and ion temperatures parallel and perpencidular to the mean magnetic field directions. The spectra for different fluctuations show similar features to one another such as a strong power anisotropy with respect to the mean magnetic field direction, such that the energy decays faster in the direction parallel to the mean magnetic field than the perpendicular direction. A weak non-gyrotropy is also seen in the direction of the bulk velocity similar to what has been seen in magnetic field fluctuations with Cluster at ion kinetic scales in the solar wind. Velocity fluctuations are shown to be the most anisotropic. The density and temperature fluctuations exhibit similar anisotropies but are much weaker in comparison.

The wind power plant-wide control strategy known as wake steering involves the misalignment of upstream turbines with the wind direction to deflect wakes away from downstream turbines, increasing net wind plant power production. In this paper, we evaluate the potential of wake steering for U.S. land-based wind power plants. First, we outline a method for simulating and optimizing wake steering control for existing wind plants by combining the flow redirection and induction in steady state wake steering engineering model with the U.S. Wind Turbine Database and Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit wind resource dataset. Next, to better understand the potential benefits of wake steering beyond those for existing wind plants, we evaluate the relative impacts of turbine specific power, turbine spacing, and mean wind speed on energy gain and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) using a model land-based wind power plant. For a subset of 60 existing wind plants, assuming a constant turbulence intensity of 8%, wake steering was found to yield an average annual energy production (AEP) gain of 0.80%, equivalent to recovering 13.85% of baseline wake losses. Further, we present a linear approximation between baseline wake losses and AEP gains that can be used to estimate wake steering gains for other wind power plants. Highlighting additional benefits of wake steering, for the model wind power plant we found that energy gains from wake steering enabled an approximate 30% reduction in turbine spacing while keeping LCOE constant.

In the solar wind, magnetic field power spectra usually show several power laws. In this paper, magnetic field data from the Cluster mission during an undisturbed interval of slow solar wind are analyzed at 0.28 Hz, near the spectral break point between the ion inertial and dissipation/dispersion ranges. Assuming Taylor's frozen-in condition, it corresponds to a proton kinetic scale of kvA/Ωp∼0.38, where vA and Ωp are the Alfven speed and proton angular gyrofrequency, respectively. Data show that the Cluster spacecraft passed through a series of wave packets. A strong isolated wave packet is found to be in accordance with the four Cluster satellites crossing an Alfven vortex, a nonlinear solution to the incompressible MHD equations. A strong agreement is seen between the data from four satellites and a model vortex with a radius of the order of 40 times the local proton gyroradii. The polarization at different spacecraft is compared and is found to agree with the vortex model, whereas it cannot be explained solely by the linear plane wave approach.

We investigate the interaction of dust with space plasmas and spacecraft with a special focus on the typical values of equilibrium charge and the typical time scales required to reach them. It is well known that objects in space become charged through the combination of a number of different processes: the photoelectric effect, the collection of free electrons and ions from the plasma, and by secondary electron emission due to the impact of highly energetic particles. In the equilibrium state, currents between the plasma and the charged object are balanced. However, perturbations on the orbit of the charged body and perturbations of the distribution of plasma particles may lead to time dependent deviations in charge. In this study, we are interested in order of magnitude estimates of these deviations as well as the time scales on which a charged body in space recovers to the equilibrium charge. Our study includes Maxwellian and Kappa plasma particle distribution functions and the role of motion on charged dust, as well as the effect of dust impacts on time dependent spacecraft potentials. We derive simple relationships on order of magnitude estimates and on time scales of different charging processes and apply our results to charged dust in the heliosphere and spacecraft potential analysis of the Magnetospheric MultiScale Mission around the Earth.

Compressible plasma turbulence is investigated in the fast solar wind at proton kinetic scales by the combined use of electron density and magnetic field measurements. Both the scale-dependent cross-correlation (CC) and the reduced magnetic helicity (σm) are used in tandem to determine the properties of the compressible fluctuations at proton kinetic scales. At inertial scales the turbulence is hypothesised to contain a mixture of Alfvénic and slow waves, characterised by weak magnetic helicity and anti-correlation between magnetic field strength B and electron density ne. At proton kinetic scales the observations suggest that the fluctuations have stronger positive magnetic helicities as well as strong anti-correlations within the frequency range studied. These results are interpreted as being characteristic of either counter-propagating kinetic Alfvén wave packets or a mixture of anti-sunward kinetic Alfvén waves along with a component of kinetic slow waves. Keywords. Interplanetary physics (MHD waves and turbulence)

The three-dimensional structure of both compressible and incompressible components of turbulence is investigated at proton characteristic scales in the solar wind. Measurements of the three-dimensional structure are typically difficult, since the majority of measurements are performed by a single spacecraft. However, the Cluster mission consisting of four spacecraft in a tetrahedral formation allows for a fully three-dimensional investigation of turbulence. Incompressible turbulence is investigated by using the three vector components of the magnetic field. Meanwhile compressible turbulence is investigated by considering the magnitude of the magnetic field as a proxy for the compressible fluctuations and electron density data deduced from spacecraft potential. Application of the multi-point signal resonator technique to intervals of fast and slow wind shows that both compressible and incompressible turbulence are anisotropic with respect to the mean magnetic field direction P⟂≫P∥ and are sensitive to the value of the plasma beta (β; ratio of thermal to magnetic pressure) and the wind type. Moreover, the incompressible fluctuations of the fast and slow solar wind are revealed to be different with enhancements along the background magnetic field direction present in the fast wind intervals. The differences in the fast and slow wind and the implications for the presence of different wave modes in the plasma are discussed. Keywords. Interplanetary physics (MHD waves and turbulence)

International audience; The foreshock, extending upstream of Earth's bow shock, is a region of intense electromagnetic wave activity and nonlinear phenomena, which can have global effects on geospace. It is also the first geophysical region encountered by solar wind disturbances journeying toward Earth. Here, we present the first observations of considerable modifications of the foreshock wave field during extreme events of solar origin called magnetic clouds. Cluster's multispacecraft data reveal that the typical quasi‐monochromatic foreshock waves can be completely replaced by a superposition of waves each with shorter correlation lengths. Global numerical simulations further confirm that the foreshock wave field is more intricate and organized at smaller scales. Ion measurements suggest that changes in shock‐reflected particle properties may cause these modifications of the wave field. This state of the foreshock is encountered only during extreme events at Earth, but intense magnetic fields are typical close to the Sun or other stars.

The description of the local turbulent energy transfer, and the high-resolution ion distributions measured by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, together provide a formidable tool to explore the cross-scale connection between the fluid-scale energy cascade and plasma processes at sub-ion scales. When the small-scale energy transfer is dominated by Alfv\'enic, correlated velocity and magnetic field fluctuations, beams of accelerated particles are more likely observed. Here, for the first time we report observations suggesting the nonlinear wave-particle interaction as one possible mechanism for the energy dissipation in space plasmas., Comment: Includes Supplemental material