Lyapunov exponent of magnetospheric activity from AL time series

Journal Article · Thu Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991 · Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/91GL01378· OSTI ID:5813490

Vassiliadis, D; Sharma, A S; Papadopoulos, K ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Maryland, College Park (United States)

A correlation dimension analysis of the AE index indicates that the magnetosphere behaves as a low-dimensional chaotic system with a dimension close to 4. Similar techniques are used to determine if the system's behavior is due to an intrinsic sensitivity to initial conditions and thus is truly chaotic. The quantity used to measure the sensitivity to initial conditions is the Lyapunov exponent. Its calculation for AL shows that it is nonzero (0.11 {plus minus} 0.05 minutes{sup {minus}1}). This gives the exponential rate at which initially similar configurations of the magnetosphere evolve into completely different states. Also predictions of deterministic nonlinear models are expected to deviate from the observed behavior at the same rate.

• OSTI ID: 5813490
• Journal Information: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States), Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States) Vol. 18:8; ISSN 0094-8276; ISSN GPRLA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661320* -- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AURORAL ZONES
CORRELATIONS
CURRENTS
DEGREES OF FREEDOM
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTROJETS
INTERACTIONS
LYAPUNOV METHOD
MATHEMATICS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR WIND
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS
VARIATIONS