APS » PROLA » Phys. Rev. E » Volume 65 » Issue 3
< Previous article | Next article >

Phys. Rev. E 65, 037303 (2002) [4 pages]

Fluid motions in the Earth’s core inferred from time spectral features of the geomagnetic field

Download: PDF (48 kB) or Buy this Article (Use Article Pack) Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

Giuseppe Consolini1, Paola De Michelis2 *, and Antonio Meloni2
1Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, CNR, I-00133 Roma, Italy
2Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, I-00143 Roma, Italy

Received 23 July 2001; published 7 March 2002

The aim of this work is to investigate the time spectral features of the main geomagnetic field fluctuations as measured on the Earth’s surface in connection with a nontraditional turbulent dynamics of the fluid motions in the outer layers of the Earth’s liquid core. The average geomagnetic field spectrum is found to be a power law, characterized by a spectral exponent α≈-11 / 3, on time scales longer than 5 yr. We discuss the spectral exponent in connection with an intense magnetic field in the Earth’s core and with a vortex coalescence process in a regime of drift-wave turbulence.


©2002 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.65.037303
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.65.037303
PACS: 91.25.Cw, 47.27.-i, 91.25.Le, 47.65.+a

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Email address: demichelis@ingv.it

[ Abstract  |  Previous article  |  Next article  |  Issue 3 ]