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—Detection of common quasiperiodicities in the paleointensity behavior and lengths of polarity intervals of the Earth’s magnetic field was carried out. The paleointensity data were analyzed in the 170 Ma–present day interval. Behavior of the lengths of geomagnetic polarity intervals was investigated within the interval spanning the entire Phanerozoic (540 Ma–present age). It was found that the spectrum of the main paleointensity variations and polarity interval lengths is discrete and includes quasiperiodic variations with characteristic times of 15, 8, 5, and 3 Ma. The characteristic times of these quasiperiodic variations in the geomagnetic field at the beginning and end of the Phanerozoic differed not more than 10%. The spectral density of quasiperiodic changes in the geomagnetic field changed cyclically over geological time. The connection between the behavior of the amplitudes of paleointensity variations, the lengths of geomagnetic polarity intervals, and their spectral density is shown. The spectral density of quasiperiodic paleointensity variations (geomagnetic activity) was relatively high in the 150–40 Ma interval (Cretaceous–early Paleogene). At this time, the amplitudes of paleointensity variations and the lengths of geomagnetic polarity intervals increased. Within the intervals spanning 170–150 Ma and 30 Ma–present age, the quasiperiodic variations of paleointensity were barely expressed against its background noise variations, while the amplitudes of paleointensity variations and the lengths of polarity intervals were decreasing. Alternations of the time intervals in which paleointensity variations acquired either a quasiperiodic or noise character took place during the evolution of the geomagnetic field.

We have analyzed the dynamics of solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) parameters during the development of 933 isolated geomagnetic storms, observed over the period from 1964 to 2010. The analysis was carried out using the epoch superposition method at intervals of 48 hrs before and 168 hrs after the moment of Dst minimum. The geomagnetic storms were selected by the type of storm commencement (sudden or gradual) and by intensity (weak, moderate, and strong). The dynamics of the solar wind and IMF parameters was compared with that of the Dst index, which is an indicator of the development of geomagnetic storms. The largest number of storms in the solar activity cycle is shown to occur in the years of minimum average values (close in magnitude to 1) of the solar wind parameter β (β is the ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure). We have revealed that the dynamics of the Dst index is similar to that of the β parameter. The duration of the storm recovery phase follows the characteristic recovery time of the β parameter. We have found out that during the storm main phase the β parameter is close to 1, which reflects the maximum turbulence of solar wind plasma fluctuations. In the recovery phase, β returns to background values β~2‒3.5. We assume that the solar wind plasma turbulence, characterized by the β parameter, can play a significant role in the development of geomagnetic storms.