NONLINEAR ENERGY CASCADE IN NONUNIFORM MEDIA

The nonlinear energy cascade in a nonuniform magnetized plasma is stud ied by using a simple model allowing an analytical solution. The resul ts are then confirmed by a more refined numerical investigation. It is shown that the propagation of moderate amplitude Alfven waves interac ting with the background may result in the dissipation of the equilibr ium energy much faster than its standard resistive timescale.