The planetary scale distribution of telluric currents and the effect of the equatorial electrojet: An investigation by canonical GDS

The planetary scale distribution of electrical currents in the Earth is still largely unknown. The role of the oceans for long period (hours to days) inducing electromagnetic fieldsB _e of external origin has been investigated by several authors, while the role of telluric current channelling, from the planetary viewpoint, is still far from a satisfactory understanding. Canonical geomagnetic depth sounding (GDS) analysis can yield locally a direction parallel to the strike of a telluric current density flowing in a region around the recording site and which also has the property of being the most relevant source for the internal origin fieldB _i observed at the given site at the given frequency. The use of such local information from 64 geomagnetic observatories is discussed here in a study to infer evidences of (a) the role of the polarization properties ofB _e and (b) the role of the telluric current channelling within conductivity anomalies relevant to the planetary scale circuitry. The results show clear evidence of the influence of the equatorial electrojet on the polarization ofB _e in a latitudinal band between ±(15°–20°) latitude. There is also evidence that theB _e associated with the equatorial electrojet produces telluric currents which flow at a much shallower depth than the skin depth to be expected in the case of a plane Earth. This implies that the Parkinson planes in these regions reflect the conductivity structure underground more than the polarization ofB _e due to the equatorial electrojet. Further, it clearly appears that some regular planetary scale pattern of telluric currents plays a more significant role than current channelling within some conductivity anomalies of fixed strike close to some geomagnetic observatories. Finally, the number of observatories used in this study appears to be insufficient to deduce any information concerning a seasonal evolution of the telluric current pattern on a planetary scale.