Intermittency in the solar wind turbulence through probability distribution functions of fluctuations

Intermittency in fluid turbulence can be emphasized through the analysis of Probability Distribution Functions (PDF) for velocity fluctuations, which display a strong non-gaussian behavior at small scales. Castaing et al. (19 90) have introduced the idea that this behavior can be represented, in the framework of a multiplicative cascade model, by a convolution of gaussians whose variances is distributed according to a log-normal distribution. In t his letter we have tried to test this conjecture on the MHD solar wind turb ulence by performing a fit of the PDF of the bulk speed and magnetic field intensity fluctuations calculated in the solar wind, with the model. This f it allows us to calculate a parameter lambda(2) depending on the scale, whi ch represents the width of the log-normal distribution of the variances of the gaussians. The physical implications of the obtained values of the para meter as well as of its scaling law are finally discussed.