Wavelet Analysis on Solar Wind Parameters and Geomagnetic Indices

TL;DR

This study applies wavelet analysis to solar wind parameters and geomagnetic indices over four solar cycles, revealing intermittent and shared periodicities that reflect the sun's oscillatory influence on Earth's space environment.

Contribution

It introduces a wavelet-based approach to identify and compare periodicities in solar wind and geomagnetic data across multiple solar cycles, highlighting shared oscillatory features.

Findings

Identification of cycle-specific periodicities in solar wind parameters.

Detection of shared intermittent periodicities between solar wind and geomagnetic indices.

Evidence of the sun's oscillatory influence reflected in Earth's space environment.

Abstract

The sun as an oscillator produces frequencies which propagate in the heliosphere, via solar wind, to the terrestrial magnetosphere. We searched for those frequencies in the parameters of the near Earth solar plasma and the geomagnetic indices for the past four solar cycles. The solar wind parameters used in this work are the interplanetary magnetic field, plasma beta, Alfven Mach number, solar wind speed, plasma temperature, plasma pressure, plasma density and the geomagnetic indices DST, AE, Ap and Kp. We found out that each parameter of the solar wind exhibit certain periodicities which differentiate in each cycle. Our results indicate intermittent periodicities in our data, some of them shared between the solar wind parameters and geomagnetic indices.