Quasi-periodic geomagnetic secular variation (from 1985–2005 world observatory data)

We have discovered a 2–4 year periodicity in geomagnetic secular variation (SV) from data of 110 world magnetic observatories. The periodicity in the horizontal component (H) is most prominent and appears to be globally uniform in different regions, on all continents, and in both hemispheres. The quasi-periodic short-wavelength variations show up in the vertical component (Z) as well but locally superpose on long-wavelength regional anomalies. We presume that the short-period fluctuations may be produced by instability of the eccentric dipole (ED) axis proceeding from the analysis of the SV field and optimization modeling of the dipole field with varied ED parameters.