Multiscale phenomena in the near-Earth magnetosphere

Several studies on the scaling properties of the near-Earth magnetosphere and auroral phenomena are reviewed. These studies employ modem analysis techniques that include fractal, multifractal, wavelet, wavelet bicoherence, and sign-singularity analyses as well as cellular automaton simulations of sandpile and avalanches. The results provide strong evidence for the multiscale, cross-scale coupling, and reorganization nature of auroral and magnetospheric phenomena, suggesting the possibility that the magnetosphere is in a forced and/or self organized critical state. Signatures of inverse cascade are found in magnetic fluctuations in current disruption events, which may indicate large-scale substorm features such as substorm current wedge and plasmoid may be evolved from small-scale plasma turbulence structures. Insights gained from these studies help to discriminate the existing competing substorm models. The multiscale properties of magnetospheric substorms are consistent with substorm models with intrinsic multiscale processes and not with substorm models with only a macroscopic process. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.