Fitting Analytical forms of spatial and temporal correlation functions to spacecraft data A. Shalchi Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2, Canada
Received: 21 Jun 2012 – Revised: 03 Sep 2012 – Accepted: 10 Sep 2012 – Published: 05 Oct 2012
Abstract. Spacecraft missions such as Wind and ACE can be used to determine magnetic correlation functions in the solar wind.
From such data sets one can obtain spatial and temporal correlations of magnetic fields. Such correlations are fundamental
in the theory of magnetic turbulence and are important to describe the statistics of magnetic field lines and the
propagation of energetic particles such as cosmic rays. In the present article we compare analytical forms of correlation
functions with measurements performed in the solar system. We obtain new values for the correlations length scales and
we test our understanding of the turbulence dynamics.
Citation: Shalchi, A.: Fitting Analytical forms of spatial and temporal correlation functions to spacecraft data, Astrophys. Space Sci. Trans., 8, 35-40, doi:10.5194/astra-8-35-2012, 2012.