Colloquium: Scaling Laws for the Energy Transfer in Space Plasma Turbulence
One characteristic trait of space plasmas is the multi-scale dynamics resulting from non-linear transfers and conversions of various forms of energy. Routinely evidenced in a range from the large-scale solar structures down to the characteristic scales of ions and electrons, turbulence is a major cross-scale energy transfer mechanism in space plasmas.
In recent decades, several scaling laws were obtained providing effective ways to model the energy flux in turbulent plasmas. Under certain assumptions, these relations enabled us to utilize reduced knowledge of the fields from spacecraft observations to obtain direct estimates of the energy transfer rates (and not only) in the interplanetary space, also in the proximity of the Sun and planets.
Starting from the first third-order exact law for the magnetohydrodynamics by Politano and Pouquet (1998), we present a short review of the main scaling laws for the energy transfer in plasma turbulence and their application, presenting the observational milestones of what has become one of the main approaches for the characterization of turbulent dynamics and energetics in space plasmas.
recording: www.youtube.com/watch