A STUDY OF MAGNETIC COMPLEXITY USING HURSTS RESCALED RANGE ANALYSIS

A fractal analysis using the classical Hurst method has been applied t o artificial data, simulated sunspot magnetic field data, and to data acquired with NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center's vector magnetograph. The main goals of this study are to quantify the complexity of an act ive region and to determine if significant changes in complexity are a ssociated with flare activity. We tested the analysis using three basi c types of two-dimensional synthetic data: (1) data composed of gaussi ans with various types of superimposed features, (2) random data, and (3) synthetic sunspots created from a basic, simple configuration on w hich are placed increasingly smaller structures. Our results confirm t hat the Hurst method of analysis is sensitive to the presence of large -scale structures within a two-dimensional image. When the large-scale structure has been removed, the value of the Hurst exponent is invers ely proportional to increasing complexity in the image. The Hurst expo nent of magnetograph data with the large-scale structure of the sunspo t removed, shows a tantalizing variation in the shear parameter five m inutes prior to a flare.