Intermittency of the solar wind density near the interplanetary shock

Abstract

The properties of turbulent fluctuations of the solar wind plasma near the interplanetary shock observed at September 12, 2014 by the BMSW instrument are considered. The spectra of the density fluctuations in the solar wind and their statistical characteristics up-and downstream of the shock front are analyzed. They are compared with each other and with characteristics corresponding to different turbulence models. It is shown that the spectral and statistical characteristics of the density fluctuations in the solar wind conserve their basic properties after the arrival of an interplanetary shock. Intermittency is observed both before and after the front, but its level increases on average in the second case. In both regions, the scaling of the structure functions of the density fluctuations in the solar wind differ from the scaling of the classical Kolmogorov model and can be described by the log-Poisson turbulence model. Parameterization of the scaling of the structure functions revealed the presence of filamentary structures in the solar wind plasma, which provide the density intermittency in the studied space regions.