Identifying intermittency events in the solar wind

Many complex physical systems in Nature are characterized by intermittency. For these systems, energy at a given scale is not evenly distributed in sp ace and any variable affected by intermittency alternates strong activity t o quiescence. Within interplanetary space context, solar wind parameters ar e highly intermittent. Although the influence of this phenomenon on the sca ling of solar wind fluctuations has been evaluated using existing intermitt ency models, it has never been possible to single out intermittent structur es within a given time series until new methods, based on the use of wavele ts, have been recently adopted. This new approach to the study of intermitt ency allows to begin a characterization of those events contributing to sol ar wind intermittency. Our first results on a single case study of magnetic field intermittency showed that this event was located at the border betwe en two adjacent interplanetary regions mainly characterized by different to tal pressure and bulk velocity, possibly the border between two adjacent fl ux-tubes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.