Linking Dynamo Simulations and Palaeomagnetism

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ulrich Christensen
• Subject Area: Geophysics
• Term: from 2004 to 2005
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5429317

The aim of this project is to improve the understanding of reversals and excursions in a collaborative effort of dynamo modelers and paleomagnetists. Numerical dynamo simulations are increasingly successful in modeling many spatial structures and temporal variations of the Earth's magnetic field. Some of the recent dynamo models undergo sequences of field reversals and excursions that are quite similar to paleomagnetic records. Geomagnetic observations are important test cases for geodynamo simulations but provide only limited information on the interior dynamo process. Dynamo simulations, on the other hand, have the advantage of providing a complete global view within the limits of the model. They can serve as a link between external observations and the interior dynamics. A detailed analyses of this dynamics may answer important questions about, for example, the cause of reversals, and the nature of excursions. The growing paleomagnetic database provides an increasingly comprehensive picture of the Earth's paleomagnetic history. First attempts to infer global properties of the transitional field during reversals and excursions are promising. They will allow more meaningful comparisons with dynamo simulations than paleomagnetic sequences from one site only.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1097: Geomagnetic Variations: Spatio-Temporal Structure, Processes, and Effects on System Earth
• International Connection: USA
• Participating Person: Dr. Steve L. Lund