The coast effect in terms of deviated electric currents: a numerical study

A numerical thin-sheet model is used to study the coast effect and to determine the magnitude of the near-surface part of the anomalous field. Theoretical induction arrows are computed for Australia, California, Japan and the British Isles and compared with the observed arrows. This comparison shows that the main part of the coast effect, and in some cases the whole coast effect, is due to the deviation of currents flowing in the ocean by the upper part of the resistive continents. It is suggested that the term ‘coast effect’ should refer to the anomalous field whose source is near-surface. The coast effect so defined behaves like a regional anomaly superimposed on other anomalous features of the transient geomagnetic field. A numerical determination of the geometrical features of the coast effect allows consideration of its elimination. This elimination is performed for California and Japan. A correlation between the resulting residual and heat-flow data is apparent in both cases.