Surprisingly rapid changes in the Earth's core discoveredJuly 08, 2008Effects on the magnetic field In a recent paper published in Nature Geoscience (*), the geophysicist Mioara MANDEA from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam and her Danish colleague Nils OLSEN from the National Space Institute/DTU Copenhagen, have shown that motions in the fluid in the Earth's core are changing surprisingly fast, and that this, in turn, effects the magnetic field of our Planet. The very precise measurements of the Earth's magnetic field delivered by the geosatellite CHAMP combined with Řrsted satellite data and ground observations over the past nine years, have made it possible to reveal what is happening at 3000 km under our feet. Indeed, for the first time, Nils Olsen and Mioara Mandea have computed a model for the flow at the top of the Earth's core that fits with the recent rapid changes in the magnetic field, and is also in agreement with the changes in the Length-of-Day variation. This core flow is rather localized in space, and involves rapid variations, almost sudden, over only a few months - a remarkably short time interval compared with the respectable age of our Planet or even with the time of the last magnetic field reversal, some 780000 years ago. Scientists from the Helmholtz Centre GFZ and other institutions are currently involved in the ESA Swarm mission, which will follow on the CHAMP achievements. The Swarm constellation consists of three CHAMP-type satellites, which will measure the Earth's magnetic field even more accurately than before. ### * Rapidly changing flows in the Earth's core, Nils OLSEN and Mioara MANDEA, Nature Geoscience 1, 390 - 394 (18 May 2008), doi: 10.1038/ngeo203 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Related Magnetic Field Current Events and Magnetic Field News Articles New study confirms exotic electric properties of graphene First, it was the soccer-ball-shaped molecules dubbed buckyballs. Then it was the cylindrically shaped nanotubes. Now, the hottest new material in physics and nanotechnology is graphene: a remarkably flat molecule made of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal rings much like molecular chicken wire. New explanation for nature's hardiest life form Got food poisoning? The cause might be bacterial spores, en extremely hardy survival form of bacteria, a nightmare for health care and the food industry and an enigma for scientists. A bubbling ball of gas The Sun is a bubbling mass. Packages of gas rise and sink, lending the sun its grainy surface structure, its granulation. Dark spots appear and disappear, clouds of matter dart up - and behind the whole thing are the magnetic fields, the engines of it all. German high-school students involved in an astronomical research project This week, Astronomy & Astrophysics publishes a somewhat unusual research article because it is co-authored by German high-school students. New TMS clinic offers noninvasive treatment for major depression Rush University Medical Center has opened the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Clinic to offer patients suffering from major depression a safe, effective, non-drug treatment. Carbon atmosphere discovered on neutron star Evidence for a thin veil of carbon has been found on the neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. This discovery, made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, resolves a ten-year mystery surrounding this object. High-performance plasmas may make reliable, efficient fusion power a reality In the quest to produce nuclear fusion energy, researchers from the DIII-D National Fusion Facility have recently confirmed long-standing theoretical predictions that performance, efficiency and reliability are simultaneously obtained in tokamaks, the leading magnetic confinement fusion device, operating at their performance limits. A special issue on the International Workshop of the 2008 Solar Total Eclipse On August 1, 2008 a total solar eclipse was visible within a narrow corridor that traversed from North America to China. Magnetic mixing creates quite a stir Sandia researchers have developed a process that can mix tiny volumes of liquid, even in complicated spaces. NIST physicists turn to radio dial for finer atomic matchmaking Investigating mysterious data in ultracold gases of rubidium atoms, scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland and their collaborators have found that properly tuned radio-frequency waves can influence how much the atoms attract or repel one another, opening up new ways to control their interactions. More Magnetic Field Current Events and Magnetic Field News Articles |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||