The effect of the electric conductivity of the Earth's mantle on the Ekman-Hartman hydromagnetic boundary layer and on the magnetic diffusion region

Summary The effect of the electrical conductivity of the Earth's mantle on the non-stationary Ekman-Hartman hydromagnetic boundary layer is investigated under the conditions in the Earth's core. It is shown that under an impulsive change of rotation of the mantle Alfvén waves can only be excited if the Ekman-Hartman hydromagnetic boundary layer is in a non-stationary state, i.e. at a time when its structure is developing. The intensity of the Alfvén waves is very small, because the excitation is more of a mechanic nature than magnetic.     

Problem of the Rotating Magnetoconvection in Variously Stratified Fluid Layer Revisited

The linear magnetoconvection in the rotating uniformly as well as non-uniformly stratified horizontal layer with azimuthal magnetic field is investigated for the various mechanical and electrical boundary conditions and especially, for various values of Roberts number. The developed diffusive perturbations (modes) are strongly influenced not only by the mentioned properties of boundaries but also by complicated coupling of viscous, thermal and magnetic diffusive processes. The mean electromotive force produced by developed hydromagnetic instabilities is also investigated to determine the hydromagnetic processes which are appropriate for -effect. The presented paper is an unification of hitherto published results of the authors and gives a short survey of many developments of corresponding model by Soward (1979).     

Hydromagnetic waves in a thin rotating spherical shell

We consider an electrically conducting fluid confined to a thin rotating spherical shell in which the Elsasser and magnetic Reynolds numbers are assumed to be large while the Rossby number is assumed to vanish in an appropriate limit. This may be taken as a simple model for a possible stable layer at the top of the Earth's outer core. It may also be a model for the thin shells which are thought to be a source of the magnetic fields of some planets such as Mercury or Uranus. Linear hydromagnetic waves are studied using a multiple scale asymptotic scheme in which boundary layers and the associated boundary conditions determine the structure of the waves. These waves are assumed to be of the form of an asymptotic series expanded about an ambient magnetic field which vanishes on the equatorial plane and velocity and pressure fields which do not. They take the form of short wave, slowly varying wave trains. The results are compared to the author's previous work on such waves in cylindrical geometry in which the boundary conditions play no role. The approximation obtained is significantly different from that obtained in the previous work in that an essential singularity appears at the equator and nonequatorial wave regions appear.     

On the nearly axially-symmetrical model of the hydromagnetic dynamo of the earth

A short review of the present state of the nearly axially-symmetrical dynamo model is given. A simplified theory for hydromagnetic dynamos taking into account the forces acting in the Earth's core is considered. The role of weak core-mantle friction is discussed and a form of solution is suggested which is characterized by a large geostrophic velocity in the core and by a boundary layer of a new type. The consequences of such a model (called model Z) for the Earth's dynamo are discussed.     

Energy geodynamo parameters compatible with analytical,numerical, paleomagnetic models and observations

A hydromagnetic dynamo is only possible at a sufficiently powerful convection. In the Earth’s core, it is probably the nonthermal convection very much in excess of its critical level with the molecular transporr coefficients. However, in the case of medium- or large-scale fields, the critical energy level caused by the turbulent tranport coefficients is likely to be slightly below the actual level. This probably explains both the 22-year success of this type of simplified geodynamo models and the energy scaling laws for hydromagnetic fields, which generalize these models. Also the review of energy-dependent analytical and observational estimates of vortex fields, hydromagnetic scale sizes, and velocities in the core is presented. These typical parameters are partly in a new way linked to the observed and more ancient magnetic variations. New, albeit, simplified and self-evident, substantiation is given to the paleomagnetic hypothesis about the predominance of the axial dipole under a certain time averaging. In (Pozzo et al., 2012) and more recent works, it is shown that the adiabatic heat flow and electrical conductivity in the Earth’s core are severalfold higher than the generally accepted estimates. Here, the dynamo supporting Braginsky’s convection (Braginsky, 1963) (under the crystallization of the heavy fraction of a liquid onto the solid core) started less than 1 Ga ago, whereas the more ancient geodynamo was supported by the compositional convection of another type. The known mechanisms implementing this convection, which differ by the scenarios of magnetic evolution, are reviewed. This may help identify the sought mechanism through the most ancient paleomagnetic estimates of the field’s intensity and through the numerical models. The probable mechanisms of generation and their absence for the primordial and recent magnetic field of the studied terrestrial planets are discussed.     

Detecting thermal boundary control in surface flows from numerical dynamos

The geomagnetic field and secular variation exhibit asymmetrical spatial features which are possibly originating from an heterogeneous thermal control of the Earth's lower mantle on the core. The identification of this control in magnetic data is subject to several difficulties, some of which can be alleviated by the use of core surface flow models. Using numerical dynamos driven by heterogeneous boundary heat flux, we confirm that within the parameter space accessible to simulations, time average surface flows obey a simple thermal wind equilibrium between the Coriolis and buoyancy forces, the Lorentz, inertial and viscous forces playing only a secondary role, even for Elsasser numbers significantly larger than 1. Furthermore, we average the models over the duration of three vortex turnovers, and correlate them with a longer time average which fully reveals the signature of boundary heterogeneity. This allows us to quantify the possibility of observing mantle control in core surface flows averaged over a short time period. A scaling analysis is performed in order to apply the results to the Earth's core. We find that three vortex turnovers could represent between 100 and 360 years of Earth time, and that the heat flux heterogeneity at the core-mantle boundary could be large enough to yield an observable signature of thermal mantle control in a time average core surface flow within reach of the available geomagnetic data.     

Analytic base of geodynamo-like scaling laws in the planets,geomagnetic periodicities and inversions

Scaling laws for hydromagnetic dynamo in planets initially express the characteristic strength of the magnetic field through the primary values, such as the size of the conductive core of the planet, the angular rotation rate, electrical conductivity and energy flows. Most of the earlier proposed scaling laws based only on observations and assumptions about force balances. Recent and my new approaches to fully take into account the energy and induction balance has additionally expressed here in terms of primary values such important characteristics as forces, magnitudes, energies, scales and orientations of hydromagnetic fields. The direct numerical simulation of the hydromagnetic dynamo and modeling ability in a fairly wide range of parameters for the first time allowed direct test such laws. The obtained numerical geodynamo-like results for the Earth, Jupiter and partially Saturn postulated previously not identified analytically simplest law that predicts the field strength is only depended on the specific energy density of convection and the size of the dynamo area. This simplest and already widely used law was original way analytically grounded here along with other previously known and new laws. This analytic identifies the physics determining geomagnetic periodicities for jerk, secular variations and inversions. Mean period between the inversions is found to be roughly proportional to the intensity of the geomagnetic field that is confirmed by some paleomagnetic researches. Possible dynamos in Mercury, Ganymede, Uranus and Neptune are also discussed.     

Resistive wave breaking in the Earth's outer core

The equations for an electrically conducting fluid in cylindrical coordinates are linearized assuming that the inertial terms in the momentum equation can be ignored (small Rossby number), and that the ratio of the Elsasser number and magnetic Reynolds number is one. After these assumptions, the governing equations are linearized about an ambient solution which vanishes at the the equator. Upon assuming large Elsasser and magnetic Reynolds number, the solutions to the linearized equations are approximated by wave trains having very short wave length (relative to the core radius) but which vary slowly (on a scale of the core radius). The period of the waves is much longer than a day but much shorter than the period of the slow hydromagnetic oscillations. These waves are found to be trapped in a region about the equator and away from the axis of rotation. The waves break at a latitudinal wave region boundary, in the sense that the waves become exponentially large in a boundary layer, having as an exponent some positive power of the large azimuthal wave number. This behavior is amplified as the Elsasser number becomes smaller while still remaining relatively large. Waves in more Earth-like parameter regimes are discussed briefly.     

On the theory of core-mantle coupling

This article commences by surveying the basic dynamics of Earth's core and their impact on various mechanisms of core-mantle coupling. The physics governing core convection and magnetic field production in the Earth is briefly reviewed. Convection is taken to be a small perturbation from a hydrostatic, “adiabatic reference state” of uniform composition and specific entropy, in which thermodynamic variables depend only on the gravitational potential. The four principal processes coupling the rotation of the mantle to the rotations of the inner and outer cores are analyzed: viscosity, topography, gravity and magnetic field. The gravitational potential of density anomalies in the mantle and inner core creates density differences in the fluid core that greatly exceed those associated with convection. The implications of the resulting “adiabatic torques” on topographic and gravitational coupling are considered. A new approach to the gravitational interaction between the inner core and the mantle, and the associated gravitational oscillations, is presented. Magnetic coupling through torsional waves is studied. A fresh analysis of torsional waves identifies new terms previously overlooked. The magnetic boundary layer on the core-mantle boundary is studied and shown to attenuate the waves significantly. It also hosts relatively high speed flows that influence the angular momentum budget. The magnetic coupling of the solid core to fluid in the tangent cylinder is investigated. Four technical appendices derive, and present solutions of, the torsional wave equation, analyze the associated magnetic boundary layers at the top and bottom of the fluid core, and consider gravitational and magnetic coupling from a more general standpoint. A fifth presents a simple model of the adiabatic reference state.     

Excitation of hide waves in the core due to transient-spatially periodic stress in the lower mantle

Summary Forced hydromagnetic oscillations in the outer core due to stress at its top are studied by means of a simple linear theoretical model originally proposed byHide [1] for the free oscillation studies. Both the magnetic and the inertial modes are excited. The expressions for the velocity, magnetic and vorticity fields are presented for a variety of stresses. They depend upon the wave number and frequency. In a numerical example wherein the stress varies periodically both in the space and the time, the amplitude of the induced magnetic field is found to be significant for reasonable values of various parameters.     

On the spin-up of a stably stratified,electrically conducting fluid. Part 2: Spin-up controlled by the mac layer

Abstract

The linear spin-up of a stably stratified, electrically conducting fluid within an electrically insulating cylindrical container in the presence of an applied axial magnetic field is analyzed for those cases in which electric currents generated within the steady MAC layer control the fluid interior, The MAC layer is a new boundary layer first studied by Loper (1976a) which controls the fluid in the parameter range E/α² ? σS ? α²/E, α² ? 1 Where E = vωL², 2α² = σB²/pω and σS = vN²/κω;². The problem is solved using the Laplace transform and four new spin-up times are obtained. Combined into one expression they are t = ω;^?1E-½[1+(σSE/α⁶)^½ + δα^-2] [1+(σSE/α^{6 1/4}]^?1 where δ = σμv. The internal spin-up mechanisms for this problem are shown to be very similar to those discussed in part 1 (Loper, 1976b). The ten known spin-up times are summarized and their inter-relationships are investigated. It is shown how to obtain the seven hydromagnetic spin-up times from a simple torsional Alfvén wave model involving a single parameter which measures the strength of the boundary layer dissipation. Finally, the present theory is applied to the solar spin-down problem and it is found that if the magnetic field in the solar interior is at least as strong as the interplanetary field of 10^-5 gauss, then the hydromagnetic spin-down time is much shorter than the Eddington-Sweet time and is comparable to the age of the sun.     

Thermal and magnetically driven instabilities in a non-constantly stratified fluid layer

Abstract

The linear hydromagnetic stability of a non-constantly stratified horizontal fluid layer permeated by an azimuthal non-homogeneous magnetic field is investigated for various widths of the stably stratified part of the layer in the geophysical limit q→0 (q is the ratio of thermal and magnetic diffusivities). The choice of the strength of the magnetic field B_o is as in Soward (1979) (see also Soward and Skinner, 1988) and the equations for the disturbances are treated as in Fearn and Proctor (1983). It was found that convection is developed in the whole layer regardless of the width of its stably stratified part. The thermal instability penetrates essentially from the unstably stratified part of the layer into the stably stratified part for A ～ 1 (A characterises the ratio of the Lorentz and Coriolis forces). When the magnetic field is strong (A>1) the thermal convection is suppressed in the stably stratified part of the layer. However, in this case, it is replaced by the magnetically driven instability; which is fully developed in the whole layer. The thermal instabilities always propagate westward and exist for all the modes m. The magnetically driven instabilities propagate either westward or eastward according to the width of the stably and unstably stratified parts and exist only for the mode m=1.     

Self-consistent dynamo models driven by hydromagnetic instabilities

The dynamics of the Earth's core are dominated by a balance between Lorentz and Coriolis forces. Previous studies of possible (magnetostrophic) hydromagnetic instabilities in this regime have been confined to geophysically unrealistic flows and fields. In recent papers we have treated rather general fields and flows in a spherical geometry and in a computationally simple plane-layer model. These studies have highlighted the importance of differential rotation in determining the spatial structure of the instability. Here we have proceeded to use these results to construct a self-consistent dynamo model of the geomagnetic field. An iterative procedure is employed in which an α-effect is calculated from the form of the instability and is then used in a mean field dynamo model. The mean zonal field calculated there is then input back into the hydromagnetic stability problem and a new α-effect calculated. The whole procedure is repeated until the input and output zonal fields are the same to some tolerance.     

Dynamo in Asymmetric Square Convection

Linear and nonlinear dynamo action is investigated for square patterns in nonrotating and weakly rotating Boussinesq Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a plane horizontal layer. The square-pattern solutions may or may not be symmetric to up-down reflections. Vertically symmetric solutions correspond to checkerboard patterns. They do not possess a net kinetic helicity and are found to be incapable of kinematic dynamo action at least up to magnetic Reynolds numbers of , 12 000. There also exist vertically asymmetric squares, characterized by rising (descending) motion in the centers and descending (rising) motion near the boundaries, among them such that possess full horizontal square symmetry and others lacking also this symmetry. The flows lacking both the vertical and horizontal symmetries possess kinetic helicity and show kinematic dynamo action even without rotation. The generated magnetic fields are concentrated in vertically oriented filamentary structures. Without rotation these dynamos are, however, always only kinematic, not nonlinear dynamos since the back-reaction of the magnetic field then forces the solution into the basin of attraction of a roll pattern incapable of dynamo action. But with rotation added parameter regions are found where stationary asymmetric squares are also nonlinear dynamos. These nonlinear dynamos are characterized by a subtle balance between the Coriolis and Lorentz forces. In some parameter regions also nonlinear dynamos with flows in the form of oscillating squares or stationary modulated rolls are found.     

Periodic and aperiodic dynamo waves

Abstract

In order to show that aperiodic magnetic cycles, with Maunder minima, can occur naturally in nonlinear hydromagnetic dynamos, we have investigated a simple nonlinear model of an oscillatory stellar dynamo. The parametrized mean field equations in plane geometry have a Hopf bifurcation when the dynamo number D=1, leading to Parker's dynamo waves. Including the nonlinear interaction between the magnetic field and the velocity shear results in a system of seven coupled nonlinear differential equations. For D>1 there is an exact nonlinear solution, corresponding to periodic dynamo waves. In the regime described by a fifth order system of equations this solution remains stable for all D and the velocity shear is progressively reduced by the Lorentz force. In a regime described by a sixth order system, the solution becomes unstable and successive transitions lead to chaotic behaviour. Oscillations are aperiodic and modulated to give episodes of reduced activity.     

A dynamo model with double diffusive convection for Mercury's core

A recent dynamo model for Mercury assumes that the upper part of the planet's fluid core is thermally stably stratified because the temperature gradient at the core–mantle boundary is subadiabatic. Vigorous convection driven by a superadiabatic temperature gradient at the boundary of a growing solid inner core and by the associated release of light constituents takes place in a deep sub-layer and powers a dynamo. These models have been successful at explaining the observed weak global magnetic field at Mercury's surface. They have been based on the concept of codensity, which combines thermal and compositional sources of buoyancy into a single variable by assuming the same diffusivity for both components. Actual diffusivities in planetary cores differ by a large factor. To overcome the limitation of the codensity model, we solve two separate transport equations with different diffusivities in a double diffusive dynamo model for Mercury. When temperature and composition contribute comparable amounts to the buoyancy force, we find significant differences to the codensity model. In the double diffusive case convection penetrates the upper layer with a net stable density stratification in the form of finger convection. Compared to the codensity model, this enhances the poloidal magnetic field in the nominally stable layer and outside the core, where it becomes too strong compared to observation. Intense azimuthal flow in the stable layer generates a strong axisymmetric toroidal field. We find in double diffusive models a surface magnetic field of the observed strength when compositional buoyancy plays an inferior role for driving the dynamo, which is the case when the sulphur concentration in Mercury's core is only a fraction of a percent.     

Steady hydromagnetic viscous flow in an annulus with porous walls

Summary An exact solution of electrically conducting viscous incompressible flow in an annulus with porous walls under an external radial magnetic field is obtained when the motion is due to both longitudinal motion of the inner boundary and a constant axial pressure gradient, and the fluid injection rate at one wall is equal to the fluid withdrawal rate at the other. The fluid may be injected at the outer wall and sucked at the inner or vice versa. The solution for the hydromagnetic flow between two flat plates has also been obtained as a limiting case of the annulus problem.     

Models for convectively driven hydromagnetic dynamos

Abstract

Models of a convectively driven hydromagnetic dynamo are constructed using a truncated modal expansion. The resulting nonlinear partial differential equations are integrated numerically. The results confirm that rotation is a necessary condition for effective dynamo action, and suggest that equipartition of kinetic and magnetic energies is qualitatively valid, and that toroidal field energies can be much larger than poloidal.     

Evidence for long-term asymmetries in the Earth's magnetic field and possible implications for dynamo theories

Paleomagnetic data indicate that there is a north-south asymmetry in the time-averaged magnetic field and that there are small but significant differences between the normal and reverse polarity states. The geographical variation is most likely due to spatial variation in the boundary conditions at the core-mantle interface. The difference in the magnetic fields of the reverse and normal polarity states can be modeled in terms of a “standing field”. The paleomagnetic data are insufficient to determine whether or not this “standing field” is of core origin. However, consideration of mechanisms, including thermoelectric currents, indicates that there probably are important differences in core processes between the two polarity states. At first glance this interpretation is difficult to reconcile with the fact that the magnetic induction equation is antisymmetric with respect to the magnetic field. A way around this problem is the possibility that only certain transitions are allowed between acceptable eigenstates in dynamo models of the Earth's magnetic field.     

Unsteady hydromagnetic flow in an annulus with porous Walls when the inner boundary starts moving from rest

Summary The problem of unsteady hydromagnetic flow in a porous annulus when the inner boundary starts moving from rest with a constant longitudinal velocity is considered. For the case of equal Reynolds number and magnetic Reynolds number Laplace transforms of the solutions for the axial components of velocity and magnetic field are obtained in terms of modified Bessel functions. The inversions are effected for the cases of very large and small Reynolds number when the pressure gradient vanishes.