Application of nonlinear methods to the study of ionospheric plasma

Abstract

Most of the processes taking place in the auroral region of Earth's ionosphere are reflected in a variety of dynamic forms of the aurora borealis. In order to study these processes it is necessary to consider temporary and spatial variations of the characteristics of ionospheric plasma. Most traditional methods of classical physics are applicable mainly for stationary or quasi-stationary phenomena, but dynamic regimes, transients, fluctuations, selfsimilar scaling could be considered using the methods of nonlinear dynamics. Special interest is the development of the methods for describing the spatial structure and the temporal dynamics of auroral ionosphere based on the ideas of percolation theory and fractal geometry. The fractal characteristics (the Hausdorff fractal dimension and the index of connectivity) of Hall and Pedersen conductivities are used to the description of fractal patterns in the ionosphere. To obtain the self-consistent estimates of the parameters the Hausdorff fractal dimension and the index of connectivity in the auroral zone, an additional relation describing universal behavior of the fractal geometry of percolation at the critical threshold is applied. Also, it is shown that Tsallis statistics can be used to study auroral ionosphere