Ambiguities in determination of self-affinity in the AE-index time series

Watkins, N.W.; Freeman, M.P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8653-8279; Rhodes, C.S.; Rowlands, G.. 2001 Ambiguities in determination of self-affinity in the AE-index time series. Fractals, 9 (4). 471-479. 10.1142/S0218348X01001123

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S0218348X01001123

Abstract/Summary

The interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind plasma results in a natural plasma confinement system which stores energy. Dissipation of this energy through Joule heating in the ionosphere can be studied via the Auroral Electrojet (AE) index. The apparent broken power law form of the frequency spectrum of this index has motivated investigation of whether it can be described as fractal coloured noise. One frequently-applied test for self-affinity is to demonstrate linear scaling of the logarithm of the structure function of a time series with the logarithm of the dilation factor λ. We point out that, while this is conclusive when applied to signals that are self-affine over many decades in λ, such as Brownian motion, the slope deviates from exact linearity and the conclusions become ambiguous when the test is used over shorter ranges of λ. We demonstrate that non self-affine time series made up of random pulses can show near-linear scaling over a finite dynamic range such that they could be misinterpreted as being self-affine. In particular, we show that pulses with functional forms such as those identified by Weimer within the AL index, from which AE is partly derived, will exhibit nearly linear scaling over ranges similar to those previously shown for AE and AL. The value of the slope, related to the Hurst exponent for a self-affine fractal, seems to be a more robust discriminator for fractality, if other information is available.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1142/S0218348X01001123
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Antarctic Science in the Global Context (2000-2005) > Magnetic Reconnection, Substorms and their Consequences
ISSN:	0218-348X
NORA Subject Terms:	Physics
Date made live:	14 Nov 2012 08:05 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/20347

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1142/S0218348X01001123

Programmes:

BAS Programmes > Antarctic Science in the Global Context (2000-2005) > Magnetic Reconnection, Substorms and their Consequences

ISSN:

0218-348X

NORA Subject Terms:

Physics

Date made live:

14 Nov 2012 08:05 +0 (UTC)