Identification of high shears and compressive discontinuities in the inner heliosphere

Two techniques, the Partial Variance of Increments (PVI) and the Local Intermittency Measure (LIM), have been applied and compared using MESSENGER magnetic field data in the solar wind at a heliocentric distance of about 0.3 AU. The spatial properties of the turbulent field at different scales, spanning the whole inertial range of magnetic turbulence down toward the proton scales have been studied. LIM and PVI methodologies allow us to identify portions of an entire time series where magnetic energy is mostly accumulated, and regions of intermittent bursts in the magnetic field vector increments, respectively. A statistical analysis has revealed that at small time scales and for high level of the threshold, the bursts present in the PVI and the LIM series correspond to regions of high shear stress and high magnetic field compressibility.