Nonlinear shallow water investigation of atmospheric disturbances generated by strong seismic events.

The upper portions of the Earth's atmospheric layer, e.g., the ionospheric plasma layer, can be significantly affected by perturbations generated in the lower layers.

A mathematical model of lithosphere-atmosphere coupling for seismic events.

Significant evidence of ionosphere disturbance in connection to intense seismic events have been detected since two decades. It is generally believed that the energy transfer can be due to Acoustic Gravity Waves (AGW) excited at ground level by the earthquakes. In spite of the statistical evidence of the detected perturbations, the coupling between lithosphere and atmosphere has not been so far properly explained by an accurate enough model.

A model for the geomagnetic field reversal rate and constraints on the heat flux variations at the core-mantle boundary.

A striking feature of many natural magnetic fields generated by dynamo action is the occurrence of polarity reversals. Paleomagnetic measurements revealed that the Earth's magnetic field has been characterised by few hundred stochastic polarity switches during its history. The rate of reversals changes in time, maybe obeying some underlying regular pattern.

Model for intermittency of energy dissipation in turbulent flows.

Modeling the intermittent behavior of turbulent energy dissipation processes in both space and time is often a relevant problem when dealing with phenomena occurring in high-Reynolds-number flows, especially in astrophysical and space fluids. In this paper, a dynamical model is proposed to describe the intermittency of the energy dissipation rate in a turbulent system. This is done by using a shell model to simulate the time evolution of the turbulent cascade and introducing some heuristic rules, partly inspired by the well-known p model, to construct a spatial structure of the energy dissipation rate.

Barriers for transport in turbulent plasmas.

The control of transport due to electrostatic turbulence is investigated using test-particle simulations. We show that a barrier for the transport, that is, a region where transport is reduced, can be generated through the randomization of phases of the turbulent field. This corresponds to the annihilation of coherent structures which are present at all scales, without actually suppressing turbulence.