Magnetic irregularities in interplanetary space and geomagnetic activity

The magnetic field data provided by the space probe Pioneer 8 are studied in connection with some of the interplanetary shock waves observed during the 1968 and the accompanying geomagnetic disturbances. Different scales of the interplanetary magnetic field irregularities are investigated by using a "smoothing" method of computation of the variance. The influence of the various scales of irregularity upon the geomagnetic activity is examined by means of the usual method of statistical correlations with Kp indices. A particularly interesting result is that relative to the space coherence of magnetic irregularities.