Abstract
The statistics of quiescent times between successive bursts of solar flares activity, performed using 20 years of data, displays a power law distribution with exponent . This is an indication of an underlying complex dynamics with long correlation times. The observed scaling behavior is in contradiction with the self-organized criticality models of solar flares which predict Poisson-like statistics. Chaotic models, including the destabilization of the laminar phases and subsequent restabilization due to nonlinear dynamics, are able to reproduce the power law for the quiescent times. A shell model of MHD turbulence correctly reproduces all the observed distributions.
- Received 30 March 1999
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.4662
©1999 American Physical Society