Pattern recognition methods (PR) in the investigation of complex geophysical objects (CGO)

  1. N.Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation RAS

The work is devoted to the questions of comprehensive (theoretical and empirical) investigation of such com-
plex geophysical objects as geomagnetospheric storms (GMS), earthquakes (EQ), and separate geological objects
(SGO) by the means of modern scientific methods. The peculiarity of the investigation of those geophysical
objects is that the data on the studied objects are obtained in different space-time regions by sets of different
instruments and apparatus. These data are processed by different methods. The complexity of the investigated
CGO requires a new methodological approach – a system approach (SA), setting a plan for scientific investiga-
tion of the studied CGO as an integrity in which the investigated processes of different modality (mechanical,
electromagnetic) are considered as tight interconnected complex in space and in time. In the system analysis
of CGO we used pattern recognition methods, including a number of high-performance methods (sequential,
cluster analysis and so on). The essence of the new approach is demonstrated on the example of a big GMS on
August 27, 1978 with Dst=-226 nT.
The perspectives of application of this new approach based on PR in the analysis of EQ data and of complex
geophysical monitoring of SGO are discussed. The principal moments drawing nearer these areas of science
(EQ and SGO) and the GMS physics are noted. In particular, the main advantage of the suggested approach is
emphasized: processes of very different nature may be considered not only on a common base, but in principle
lead to reconstruction of an CGO, for example, of EQ as a complex physical event on the base of developed
techniques of dendrite (or dendrogram) presentation of interconnected processes, just as it was done for a geo-
magnetospheric storm. Therefore, EQ forecast may be realized on the base of all available data complexes and
their interrelation.