On the fractal structure of small-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances

Abstract

We present the results of the studies of fractal properties of the small-scale inhomogeneities of traveling ionospheric disturbances in special experiments on radio-raying of the midlatitude ionosphere by signals from orbital satellites in 2004–2006. Along with the conventional correlation processing of the received signals, we performed their multifractal analysis, as well as fractal processing of signals by the correlation-integral method. Important information on fractal properties of the small-scale turbulence for the least studied part of the upper-ionosphere inhomogeneity spectrum in the interval of characteristic scales l ≈ 1–10 km is obtained. In particular, it is noted that the fractal structure of these inhomogeneities can be originated from the nonlinear “destruction” of several large-scale sinusoidal structures in a quasistable traveling disturbance. It is also noted that the multifractal spectra of amplitude fluctuations of the received signals obtained in the experiments in different years, in different time of the day, and in different seasons of the observations are quite similar. This is evidence that intermittency is a universal property of the plasma turbulence, at least for the midlatitude upper ionosphere.