THE HARMONIC PERSISTENCE CORRELATION AND GEOMAGNETIC DISTURBANCE

Abstract

A persistence correlation is defined with which it is possible to determine the separate contributions of each of the harmonics to the total persistence of the pressure distribution around a circle of latitude. Time-series of such harmonic persistence correlations are computed for a period of over seven years, for the 500-mb contour height at latitudes 30, 45 and 6ON. These data show that the longer waves, which tend to be quasi-stationary, contribute the major part of the total persistence. They also add further evidence to some earlier results which indicated a relationship between solar corpuscular radiation and the subsequent behavior of the surface-pressure distribution.