Open AccessOn the chaotic nature of solar‐terrestrial environment: Interplanetary Alfvén intermittency
Author(s) -
Chian A. C.L.,
Kamide Y.,
Rempel E. L.,
Santana W. M.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2005ja011396
Subject(s) - intermittency , physics , solar wind , magnetosphere , chaotic , attractor , geophysics , plasma , mechanics , turbulence , mathematical analysis , mathematics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science
We present an overview of observational and theoretical evidence of chaos and intermittency in the solar‐terrestrial environment including solar dynamo, solar atmosphere, solar wind, and terrestrial magnetosphere‐ionosphere‐atmosphere. The chaotic nature of space plasmas is studied by a nonlinear model of Alfvén waves described by the low‐dimensional limit of the derivative nonlinear Schrödinger equation given by its stationary solutions in the frame moving with the driver wave velocity. A periodic window of the bifurcation diagram is constructed to identify two types of Alfvén chaos related to type‐I intermittency and crisis‐induced intermittency. We show that an Alfvén chaotic attractor is composed of chaotic saddles and unstable periodic orbits and explain the links between these unstable structures and Alfvén intermittency. The role of interplanetary Alfvén intermittency in the solar wind driving of intense geomagnetic activities is discussed.