Robustness of collective behaviour in strongly driven avalanche models: Magnetospheric implications

Watkins, N. W.; Chapman, S. C.; Dendy, R. O.; Rowlands, G.. 1999 Robustness of collective behaviour in strongly driven avalanche models: Magnetospheric implications. Geophysical Research Letters, 26 (16). 2617-2620. 10.1029/1999GL900586

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Abstract/Summary

The hypothesis of self-organised criticality (SOC) predicts that certain open dissipative systems evolve to a critical state where all energy release statistics display power law distributions for event occurrence, size and duration. This has motivated “sandpile” simulations of magnetospheric energy confinement and release events (“avalanches”), previous examples of which have taken the limit where energy inflow (“fuelling”) is slow relative to dissipation, and either uniform or random. However the magnetospheric system has both slow and fast periods mixed together in observations, and naturally modulated fuelling. We have developed an avalanche model with variable, modulated fuelling rate. The power law form for the distribution of energy release events is the least ambiguous current indicator of SOC; we show that this is preserved for the large avalanches in such a system under both constant and varying loading and so such systems are remarkably efficient at eliminating small scale information about their fuelling.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1029/1999GL900586
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Pre 2000 programme
ISSN:	00948276
Date made live:	13 Nov 2013 14:59 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/503836

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