On the applicability of Taylor’s hypothesis in streaming magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Abstract We examine the range of applicability of Taylor’s hypothesis used in observations of magnetic turbulence in the solar wind. We do not refer to turbulence theory. We simply ask whether in a turbulent magnetohydrodynamic flow the observed magnetic frequency spectrum can be interpreted as mapping of the wavenumber turbulence into the stationary spacecraft frame. In addition to the known restrictions on the angle of propagation with respect to the fluctuation spectrum and the question on the wavenumber dependence of the frequency in turbulence which we briefly review, we show that another restriction concerns the inclusion or exclusion of turbulent fluctuations in the velocity field. Taylor’s hypothesis in application to magnetic turbulence encounters its strongest barriers here. It is applicable to magnetic turbulence only when the turbulent velocity fluctuations can practically be completely neglected against the bulk flow speed. For low flow speeds the transformation becomes rather involved. This account makes even no use of the additional scale dependence of the turbulent frequency, viz. the existence of a “turbulent dispersion relation”