Daubechies wavelet coefficients: a tool to study interplanetary magnetic field fluctuations

Abstract

We have studied a set of 41 magnetic clouds (MCs) measured by the ACE spacecraft, using the discrete orthogonal wavelet transform (Daubechies wavelet of order two) in three regions: Pre-MC (plasma sheath), MC and Post-MC. We have used data from the IMF GSM-components with time resolution of 16 s. The mathematical property chosen was the statistical mean of the wavelet coefficients (〈Dd1 〉). The Daubechies wavelet coefficients have been used because they represent the local regularity present in the signal being studied. The results reproduced the well-known fact that the dynamics of the sheath region is more than that of the MC region. This technique could be useful to help a specialist to find events boundaries when working with IMF datasets, i.e., a best form to visualize the data. The wavelet coefficients have the advantage of helping to find some shocks that are not easy to see in the IMF data by simple visual inspection. We can learn that fluctuations are not low in all MCs, in some cases waves can penetrate from the sheath to the MC. This methodology has not yet been tested to identify some specific fluctuation patterns at IMF for any other geoeffective interplanetary events, such as Co-rotating Interaction Regions (CIRs), Heliospheric Current Sheet (HCS) or ICMEs without MC signatures. In our opinion, as is the first time that this technique is applied to the IMF data with this purpose, the presentation of this approach for the Space Physics Community is one of the contributions of this work.