Palaeosecular variation and the current loop model of the geomagnetic field

Summary. The geomagnetic palaeosecular variation has been studied in terms of two current loops which change their positions and orientations with time. The results broadly agree with the observed data. Comparison with the existing models is made.     

Analysis of geomagnetic variations in south-western Nigeria

Geomagnetic variations, observed at 11 sites in south-western Nigeria, have been analysed to derive interstation transfer functions with the site at Ile-Ife as reference station. The study involves frequencies from 1 to 6 c.p.h. The reference station Ile-Ife is 160 km northward of the continental slope off the Nigerian coastline and 400 km southward of the dip equator. The analysis has been carried out separately with selected data sections of a few hours length during daytime and during the night. Thus expressed linear relations between field components are in the case of day events of dual implication: (1) for the source field structure of the equatorial electrojet, (2) for internal conductivity conditions, including the coast effect from the Bight of Benin. Conductivity anomalies are the sole cause for an observed spatial variability of night events. A 2-D thin-sheet conductivity model has been derived taking both the source and the coast effect into consideration. This model provides a reasonably good fit between observed and computed transfer functions during day and night.     

Tracking a non-dipole geomagnetic anomaly using new archaeointensity results from north-east China

A collection of ceramics and samples, collected from north-east China with ages ranging from 1000 to 7000 years, have been investigated using a modified version of the Shaw palaeointensity techniques (Shaw 1974; Rolph & Shaw 1985) in which only partial NRMs and TRMs (PNRMs and PTRMs) with blocking temperatures (T_b) above 300 C are used after pre-selection of samples by mineral magnetic analysis. A secular variation curve obtained from this study is quite consistent with previous results from other areas of China (Wei et al. 1987; Tang et al. 1991), as well as with the global model of McElhinny & Senanayake (1982). Comparison of the Chinese results with contemporaneous results from Greece (Aitken et al. 1989) has allowed us to track the movement of a large non-dipole anomaly as it drifts westwards.     

Annual variation of the geomagnetic field

Summary. Horizontal and vertical intensity data, obtained between 1957.0 and 1961.0 at 69 observatories, are analysed to determine the worldwide distribution of the annual variation of the geomagnetic field. Only data observed near local midnight are used, to avoid the small, but significant contamination from Sq. Over most of the world the variation is found to be small, with a clear dependence on latitude, but near the poles it is larger and more erratic. The non-polar variation is subjected to spherical harmonic analysis and separated into parts of internal and external origin. The polar variations are shown to be consistent with a north—south oscillation of the mean position of the auroral electrojets during the year. It is suggested that, with the exception of the polar effect, the annual variation is not due to ionospheric currents (as was hitherto believed), but results from an annual variation in the latitude of the ring current.     

A geomagnetic variation study of Scotland

Summary. Data from eighteen Gough—Reitzel magnetometers and four flux-gate magnetometers, which were operated in North Scotland, are presented and discussed. The coverage given by this set of instruments was not dense enough to resolve satisfactorily the complex induction anomalies in this area but some of the major features seen are described. The features observed cannot be accounted for either by oceanic induction effects or by source field effects. The Great Glen shows up as a major conductivity feature. Other effects are also observed, some apparently associated with the highly resistive granites found in this area.     

Assessment of regional geomagnetic field modelling methods using a standard data set: spherical cap harmonic analysis

Various methods that take account of the potential nature of the field have been proposed for modelling geomagnetic data on a regional scale. Several of these have been applied to a standard data set based on annual mean values from observatories in Europe. Here, we examine some of the properties of spherical cap harmonic analysis when applied to this data set, and compare the quality of fit with that of the other models. It is found that, for this data set, rectangular polynomial analysis provides a compact fit to main field data, but that in most other cases, for both main field and anomaly data, spherical cap harmonic analysis provides the better fit. Although relatively insensitive to chosen cap size, spherical cap harmonic analysis deteriorates more rapidly than the other methods when the number of coefficients is reduced.     

Local time variation of geomagnetic transfer functions

The local time (LT) variation of the geomagnetic transfer function at the 32-min period was examined for observatories distributed worldwide. Two distinct variation types (types 1 and 2) were found in the real part of A. Type 1 is conspicuous at lower latitudes and its seasonal variation is small, whereas type 2 is found at higher latitudes and has its maximum in summer. These two types of LT variation are seen globally and are conspicuous when solar activity is high. The amplitudes of both types of variation vary from 0.018 to 0.078, and are independent of the mean values at each observatory. These values are relatively small, but the amplitude of Chambon la Foret is larger than the mean value, which shows that Au changes its sign in local time. The amplitudes of type 1 and 2 variations decrease and increase with geomagnetic latitude, respectively. These features suggest that they are generated by some global external fields. The most probable cause is the Sq field, although the Dp field may contribute to type 1 variation. On the other hand, for the islands of the Pacific Ocean at low latitudes, such as Honolulu and Chichijima, the type 1 variation appears not in the real but in the imaginary part of A, which suggests that currents induced in the ocean also contribute to the local time variation.     

名士家园：辽阳的八个历史坐标

辽阳白塔是全国六大古塔之一,属国家级文物保护单位。白塔坐落于辽阳中华大街北侧,塔高71米,八角十三层密檐式结构,是东北地区最高的砖塔,建于金代大定年间（1161—1189年）,是金世宗完颜雍为其母贞懿皇后李氏所建的垂庆寺塔的俗称,至今已有800多年的历史。基座塔身都以砖雕的佛教图案为饰。塔身八面都建有佛龛,龛内砖雕坐佛。塔顶有铁刹杆、宝珠、相轮等。因塔身、塔檐的砖瓦上涂抹白灰,俗称白塔。     

Rectangular polynomial analysis of the regional geomagnetic field

The method of rectangular polynomial analysis (RPA) is developed and refined to represent a curl-free potential field of internal origin. It is applied to annual mean values of the geomagnetic field from 42 European observatories. RPA is found to be an efficient means of representing the regional field, though less suitable for modelling the anomaly field.     

Maximum entropy regularization of time-dependent geomagnetic field models

We incorporate a maximum entropy image reconstruction technique into the process of modelling the time-dependent geomagnetic field at the core–mantle boundary (CMB). In order to deal with unconstrained small lengthscales in the process of inverting the data, some core field models are regularized using a priori quadratic norms in both space and time. This artificial damping leads to the underestimation of power at large wavenumbers, and to a loss of contrast in the reconstructed picture of the field at the CMB. The entropy norm, recently introduced to regularize magnetic field maps, provides models with better contrast, and involves a minimum of a priori information about the field structure. However, this technique was developed to build only snapshots of the magnetic field. Previously described in the spatial domain, we show here how to implement this technique in the spherical harmonic domain, and we extend it to the time-dependent problem where both spatial and temporal regularizations are required. We apply our method to model the field over the interval 1840–1990 from a compilation of historical observations. Applying the maximum entropy method in space—for a fit to the data similar to that obtained with a quadratic regularization—effectively reorganizes the magnetic field lines in order to have a map with better contrast. This is associated with a less rapidly decaying spectrum at large wavenumbers. Applying the maximum entropy method in time permits us to model sharper temporal changes, associated with larger spatial gradients in the secular variation, without producing spurious fluctuations on short timescales. This method avoids the smearing back in time of field features that are not constrained by the data. Perspectives concerning future applications of the method are also discussed.