Astrophysical processes inject energy at large scales into turbulent motion and electromagnetic fields, this energy then cascades to progressively smaller scales and it's eventually thermalized by the plasma. In this work, for the first time using in-situ data, we bring direct evidence that the energy cascade feeds the energy dissipation via the pressure-strain interaction.

Applying the coarse-graining method to MMS spacecraft's data we are able to measure simultaneously the cross-scale energy transfer and the scale-dependent dissipation showing that the cascade rate, constant in the MHD range, weakens progressively as we move into the sub-ion range. The decrease in the cascade rate is counterbalanced at each scale by the increase in dissipation via the pressure-strain interaction.

This novel method opens new pathways to investigate turbulent energy conversion in space plasmas.