The spectrum of kink-like oscillations of solar photospheric magnetic elements

Recently, the availability of new high-spatial and -temporal resolution observations of the solar photosphere has allowed the study of the oscillations in small magnetic elements. Small magnetic elements have been found to host a rich variety of oscillations detectable as intensity, longitudinal or transverse velocity fluctuations which have been interpreted as MHD waves. Small magnetic elements, at or below the current spatial resolution achieved by modern solar telescopes, are though to play a relevant role in the energy budget of the upper layers of the Sun's atmosphere, as they are found to cover a significant fraction of the solar photosphere. Unfortunately, the limited temporal length and/or cadence of the data sets, or the presence of seeing-induced effects have prevented, so far, the estimation of the power spectra of kink-like oscillations in small magnetic elements with good accuracy. Motivated by this, we studied kink-like oscillations in small magnetic elements, by exploiting very long duration and high-cadence data acquired with the Solar Optical Telescope on board the Hinode satellite. In this work we present the results of this analysis, by studying the power spectral density of kink-like oscillations on a statistical basis. We found that small magnetic elements exhibit a large number of spectral features in the range 1-12 mHz. More interestingly, most of these spectral features are not shared among magnetic elements but represent a unique signature of each magnetic element itself.Comment: A&A accepted for publication. 8 pages, 5 figure

Multifractal structure and intermittence in the AE index time series

The conventional approach to magnetospheric dynamics has not provided until now a satisfactory description of the singular behaviour of magnetospheric substorms. In this paper we present a multifractal analysis of AE time series, based on singularity analysis, a new tool to investigate signal dynamics features. The existence of a multifractal structure of the AE index with respect to time dilation has been investigated. The resulting multifractal behaviour of the signal can be interpreted as the signature of an underlying intermittence phenomenon. The derived singularity spectrum is well in agreement with the one of a two-scale Cantor model (P-model), a pure multiplicative model. The presence of intermittence in AE might indicate the occurrence of turbulence in magnetospheric dissipation processes

Observational evidence for buffeting induced kink waves in solar magnetic elements

The role of diffuse photospheric magnetic elements in the energy budget of the upper layers of the Sun's atmosphere has been the recent subject of many studies. This was made possible by the availability of high temporal and spatial resolution observations of the solar photosphere, allowing large numbers of magnetic elements to be tracked to study their dynamics. In this work we exploit a long temporal series of seeing-free magnetograms of the solar photosphere to study the effect of the turbulent convection in the excitation of kink oscillations in magnetic elements. We make use of the empirical mode decomposition technique (EMD) in order to study the transverse oscillations of several magnetic flux tubes. This technique permits the analysis of non-stationary time series like those associated to the horizontal velocities of these flux tubes which are continuously advected and dispersed by granular flows. Our primary findings reveal the excitation of low frequency modes of kink oscillations, which are sub-harmonics of a fundamental mode with a $7.6 \pm 0.2$ minute periodicity. These results constitute a strong case for observational proof of the excitation of kink waves by the buffeting of the convection cells in the solar photosphere, and are discussed in light of their possible role in the energy budget of the upper Sun's atmosphere.Comment: A&A accepte

rank ordering multifractal analysis of the auroral electrojet index

Abstract. In the second half of the 90s interest grew on the complex features of the magnetospheric dynamics in response to solar wind changes. An important series of papers were published on the occurrence of chaos, turbulence and complexity. Among them, particularly interesting was the study of the bursty and fractal/multifractal character of the high latitude energy release during geomagnetic storms, which was evidenced by analyzing the features of the Auroral Electrojet (AE) indices. Recently, the multifractal features of the small time-scale increments of AE-indices have been criticized in favor of a more simple fractal behavior. This is particularly true for the scaling features of the probability density functions (PDFs) of the AE index increments. Here, after a brief review of the nature of the fractal/multifractal features of the magnetospheric response to solar wind changes, we investigate the multifractal nature of the scaling features of the AE index increments PDFs using the Rank Ordering Multifractal Analysis (ROMA) technique. The ROMA results clearly demonstrate the existence of a hierarchy of scaling indices, depending on the increment amplitude, for the data collapsing of PDFs relative to increments at different time scales. Our results confirm the previous results by Consolini et al. (1996) and the more recent results by Rypdal and Rypdal (2010)

Super-diffusion versus competitive advection: a simulation

Magnetic element tracking is often used to study the transport and diffusion of the magnetic field on the solar photosphere. From the analysis of the displacement spectrum of these tracers, it has been recently agreed that a regime of super-diffusivity dominates the solar surface. Quite habitually this result is discussed in the framework of fully developed turbulence. But the debate whether the super-diffusivity is generated by a turbulent dispersion process, by the advection due to the convective pattern, or by even another process, is still open, as is the question about the amount of diffusivity at the scales relevant to the local dynamo process. To understand how such peculiar diffusion in the solar atmosphere takes places, we compared the results from two different data-sets (ground-based and space-borne) and developed a simulation of passive tracers advection by the deformation of a Voronoi network. The displacement spectra of the magnetic elements obtained by the data-sets are consistent in retrieving a super-diffusive regime for the solar photosphere, but the simulation also shows a super-diffusive displacement spectrum: its competitive advection process can reproduce the signature of super-diffusion. Therefore, it is not necessary to hypothesize a totally developed turbulence regime to explain the motion of the magnetic elements on the solar surface

Relative ordering in the radial evolution of solar wind turbulence: the S-Theorem approach

Abstract. Over the past few decades scientists have shown growing interest in space plasma complexity and in understanding the turbulence in magnetospheric and interplanetary media. At the beginning of the 1980s, Yu. L. Klimontovich introduced a criterion, named S-Theorem, to evaluate the degree of order in far-from-equilibrium open systems, which applied to hydrodynamic turbulence showed that turbulence flows were more organized than laminar ones. Using the same theorem we have evaluated the variation of the degree of self-organization in both Alfvénic and non-Alfvénic turbulent fluctuations with the radial evolution during a long time interval characterized by a slow solar wind. This analysis seems to show that the radial evolution of turbulent fluctuations is accompanied by a decrease in the degree of order, suggesting that, in the case of slow solar wind, the turbulence decays with radial distance

On the local Hurst exponent of geomagnetic field fluctuations: spatial distribution for different geomgnetic activity levels

This study attempts to characterize the spatial distribution of the scaling features of the short time scale magnetic field fluctuations obtained from 45 ground based geomagnetic observatories distributed in the northern hemisphere. We investigate the changes of the scaling properties of the geomagnetic field fluctuations by evaluating the local Hurst exponent and reconstruct maps of this index as a function of the geomagnetic activity level. These maps permit us to localize the different latitudinal structures responsible for disturbances and related to the ionospheric current systems. We find that the geomagnetic field fluctuations associated with the different ionospheric current systems have different scaling features, which can be evidenced by the local Hurst exponent. We also find that, in general, the local Hurst exponent for quiet magnetospheric periods is higher than that for more active periods suggesting that the dynamical processes that are activated during disturbed times are responsible for changes in the nature of the geomagnetic field fluctuations

Fractal time statistics of AE-index burst waiting times: evidence of metastability

Recent observations and analyses evidenced that the magnetotail, as well as the magnetospheric dynamics are characterised by a scale-free behaviour and intermittence. These results, along with numerical simulations on cellular automata, suggest that the observed scale-invariance may be due to forced and/or self-organised criticality (FSOC), meaning that the magnetotail operates near a marginally stable state (Chang, 1999). On the other hand, it was underlined that a complex magnetic field topology in the geotail regions may play a relevant role in the impulsive energy relaxation (Consolini and Chang, 2001)

Dynamics of the solar photosphere: THEMIS observations

We present the results of 2D narrow- and broad-band photometry of quiet granulation field as observed at the center of the Sun by the THEMIS telescope in IPM mode. The broad-band spectral images have beenused to derive geometrical and statistical properties of the pattern produced by convective flows rising from deep layers of the Sun. The narrow-band spectral observations, in the C I 538.0 nm, Fe I 537.9 nm, and Fe I 557.6 nm photospheric lines, have been used to calculate velocity and intensity maps at different heights in the solar atmosphere. The autocorrelation functions of the velocity fields at different heights suggest that, near the solar surface, the dynamics resemble the behavior of a complex out-of-Equilibrium system, characterized by a dynamical heterogeneity. Conversely, in the middle photosphere, where only one characteristic time exists, the dynamical heterogeneity disappears. Moreover, the characteristic scales, derived from photospheric velocity maps by means of wavelet and information entropy analysis, show a dependence of their properties on the formation height of photospheric lines and an enlargement of the velocity features with height