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IMF clock angle control of multifractality in ionospheric velocity fluctuations
Author(s) -
Abel G. A.,
Freeman M. P.,
Chisham G.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2009gl040336
Subject(s) - intermittency , physics , multifractal system , ionosphere , interplanetary magnetic field , solar wind , geophysics , scaling , interplanetary spaceflight , magnetic field , computational physics , turbulence , meteorology , geometry , fractal , mathematical analysis , mathematics , quantum mechanics
We present an analysis of 8 years of meridional line‐of‐sight ionospheric plasma velocity measurements from the Halley SuperDARN radar which investigates the effect of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) clock angle on the scaling exponents of the first three order velocity structure functions. We only use velocity measurements made poleward of the open/closed magnetic field line boundary in the nightside ionosphere. The measured scaling exponents are consistent with multifractal Kraichnan‐Iroshnikov turbulence for all clock angles but with varying intermittency that decreases to zero during purely northward IMF conditions. We thus propose that intermittency is inherited from the solar wind but also discuss other possible reasons for this relationship.