Evidence for a solar wind origin of the power law burst lifetime distribution of the AE indices

Freeman, M.P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8653-8279; Watkins, N.W.; Riley, D.J.. 2000 Evidence for a solar wind origin of the power law burst lifetime distribution of the AE indices. Geophysical Research Letters, 27 (8). 1087-1090. https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GL010742

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/1999GL010742

Abstract/Summary

In this paper we examine the claim that the power law distribution of burst lifetimes in the AE index is evidence that the magnetosphere is a Self‐Organized Critical (SOC) system. To do this we compare the burst lifetime distributions of the AU and |AL| indices with those of the υBs and ε solar wind input functions. We show for the first time that both the υBs and ε burst lifetime distributions are of power law form with an exponential cut‐off, consistent with the solar wind being an SOC system. Furthermore, the power law of the ε burst lifetime distribution is not significantly different to that of the AU and |AL| indices, indicating that this scale‐free property of the AE indices could arise from the solar wind input and may not be an intrinsic property of the magnetospheric system. We discuss the implications of this result for SOC theories of the magnetosphere.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GL010742
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Pre 2000 programme
ISSN:	0094-8276
Date made live:	26 Nov 2012 10:03 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/20541

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GL010742

Programmes:

BAS Programmes > Pre 2000 programme

ISSN:

0094-8276

Date made live:

26 Nov 2012 10:03 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/20541