Space and astrophysical plasmas are typically in a turbulent state, exhibiting strong fluctuations of various quantities over a broad range of scales. These fluctuations are non-linearly coupled and this coupling may lead to a transfer of energy (and other quantities such as cross helicity, magnetic helicity) from large to small scales and to dissipation. Turbulent processes are relevant for the heating of the solar wind and the corona, and the acceleration of energetic particles. Many aspects of the turbulence are not well understood, in particular, the injection and onset of the cascade, the cascade itself, the dissipation mechanisms. Moreover, the role of specific phenomena such as the magnetic reconnections, shock waves, solar wind expansion, plasma instabilities and their relationship with the turbulent cascade and dissipation are under debate. This session will address these questions through discussion of observational, theoretical, numerical, and laboratory work to understand these processes. This session is relevant to many space missions, e.g., Wind, Cluster, MMS, STEREO, THEMIS, Van Allen Probes, DSCOV, Solar Orbiter and the Parker Solar Probe.
This year, in particular, we welcome contributions on how future missions, such as HelioSwarm and Plasma Observatory, can advance our understanding of turbulence in space plasmas
Turbulence in space plasmas
Co-organized by NP6/PS4