The Effect of an Ocean on Magnetic Diurnal Variations

Summary. Theoretical calculations have been made for the idealized case in which an ocean is approximated by an infinitely long rectangular conducting sheet. The results indicate that even in the case of magnetic variations with periods as long as 24 hr one should expect a significant and easily observable enhancement in the vicinity of the edge of an ocean. When the inducing field is a function of local time only, it is found that the amplification of the variations is greater at the eastern edge of the ocean than at the western edge.
Laboratory model studies have been used to investigate the effect of irregularities in the shape of a coastline. Results which have been obtained from a model of the Pacific Ocean in the neighbourhood of Japan indicate that it is reasonable to attribute at least a part of the anomalous diurnal variations observed in central Japan to electric currents induced in the ocean.