THE EARTH’s Magnetic Field

Magnetic field, a vector field in the neighbourhood of a magnet, electric current, or changing
electric field, in which magnetic forces are observable. Magnetic fields such as that of Earth
cause magnetic compass needles and other permanent magnets to line up in the direction of the
field. The Geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field associated with Earth. It is primarily dipolar
(i.e., it has two poles, the geomagnetic North and South poles) on Earth’s surface. Away from
the surface, the dipole becomes distorted.
Studies on the Earth’s magnetic field concludes that the principal dipolar component had its
origin inside Earth as well as external influences. Studies demonstrated that the dipolar
component has a decreasing function inversely proportional to the square of Earth’s radius, a
conclusion that led scientists to speculate on (a) the origin of Earth’s magnetic field in terms of
ferromagnetism (as in a gigantic bar magnet), (b) various rotation theories, and (3) various
dynamo theories.
Ferromagnetism and rotation theories generally are discredited—ferromagnetism because the
Curie point (the temperature at which ferromagnetism is destroyed) is reached only 20 or so
kilometres (about 12 miles) beneath the surface, and rotation theories because apparently no
fundamental relation exists between mass in motion and an associated magnetic field. Most
geomagneticians concern themselves with various dynamo theories, whereby a source of energy
in the core of Earth causes a self-sustaining magnetic field.
Earth’s steady magnetic field is produced by many sources, both above and below the planet’s
surface. From the core outward, these include the geomagnetic dynamo, crustal magnetization,
the ionospheric dynamo, the ring current, the magnetopause current, the tail current, field-aligned
currents, and auroral, or convective, electrojets. The geomagnetic dynamo is the most important
source because, without the field it creates, the other sources would not exist. Not far above
Earth’s surface the effect of other sources becomes as strong as or stronger than that of the
geomagnetic dynamo. In the discussion that follows, each of these sources is considered and the
respective causes explained.
Earth’s magnetic field is subject to variation on all timescales. Each of the major sources of the
so-called steady field undergoes changes that produce transient variations, or disturbances. The
main field has two major disturbances: quasi-periodic reversals and secular variation. The
ionospheric dynamo is perturbed by seasonal and solar cycle changes as well as by solar and
lunar tidal effects. The ring current responds to the solar wind (the ionized atmosphere of the Sun
that expands outward into space and carries with it the solar magnetic field), growing in strength
when appropriate solar wind conditions exist. Associated with the growth of the ring current is a
second phenomenon, the magnetospheric sub-storm, which is most clearly seen in the aurora
borealis. An entirely different type of magnetic variation is caused by magnetohydrodynamic
(MHD) waves. These waves are sinusoidal variations in the electric and magnetic fields that are
coupled to changes in particle density. They are the means by which information about changes
in electric currents is transmitted, both within Earth’s core and in its surrounding environment of
charged particles. Each of these sources of variation is also discussed separately below.
Characteristics of Earth’s magnetic field
To a first approximation the magnetic field observed at the surface of Earth is like that of a
magnet aligned with the planet’s rotation axis. The figure 1 shows such a field for a bar magnet
located at the centre of a sphere. If the sphere is taken to be Earth with the north geographic pole
at the top of the diagram, the magnet must be oriented with its north magnetic pole downward
toward the south geographic pole. Then, as shown in the diagram, magnetic field lines leave the
north pole of the magnet and curve around until they cross Earth’s Equator pointing
geographically northward. They curve still more reentering Earth in northern latitudes, finally
returning to the south pole of the magnet. At the present time, the north geographic pole
corresponds to the south pole of the equivalent bar magnet. This has not always been the case.
Many times, in the history of Earth the direction of the equivalent magnet has pointed in the
opposite direction.

Dipolar field
The magnetic field lines shown in the bar-magnet figure are not real entities, although they are
frequently treated as such. A magnetic field is a continuous function that exists at every point in
space. A field line is simply a means for visualizing the direction of this field. It is defined as a
curve in three dimensions that is everywhere tangential to the local magnetic field. The pattern of
field lines created by a bar magnet is called a dipolar field because it has the same shape as the
electric field produced by two (di-) slightly separated charges (poles) of opposite sign. The
dipole field of Earth is, of course, not produced by a bar magnet at its centre. As will be
discussed later, it is instead produced by electric currents within Earth’s liquid core. To produce
the present field, the equivalent current must be a westward equatorial loop, as shown in the bar-
magnet figure. In SI units the dipole moment, μ, for Earth is 8.22 × 1022 A m2 (amperes times
square metre). Since μ = IA (current times area), a loop the size of the liquid core (Rc = 3.48 ×
106 m) would require an equivalent current of 2.16 × 109 A.
The magnetic field of a dipole is vertical along the polar axis and horizontal along the equator, as
can be seen from the bar-magnet figure. These properties lead to definitions of equator and pole
in Earth’s more complex field. Thus, the geomagnetic equator is defined as the line around
Earth’s surface where the actual field is horizontal. Similarly, the magnetic dip poles are the two
points at which the field is vertical. If observations are extended above or below the surface, the
location of the equator is a surface (planar for a dipole) and the poles lie along curves.

At a given distance in a pure dipole field, the polar field is always twice the equatorial field. This
is roughly true for Earth’s field. In a map showing the contours of constant total field magnitude
according to a 1980 model plotted on a geographic Mercator projection, the largest fields
occurred at two points in the Northern and Southern hemispheres not far from the geomagnetic
poles. The weakest field occurred along the magnetic equator, with the lowest value being
observed on the Atlantic coast of South America.

Several facts about Earth’s field are apparent from the total field map. First, the dipole
approximating it is not exactly aligned with the rotation axis. The poles of the dipole are located
roughly in northern Canada and on the coast of Antarctica rather than at the geographic poles.
This implies that the dipole is tilted away from the rotation axis in a geographic meridian passing
through the eastern United States. The exact tilt of the best-centred dipole is 11° away from the
geographic North Pole toward North America at a longitude 71° W of Greenwich. The total field
map also suggests that the field is not exactly centred in Earth, for, if it were, the field strength
should be nearly constant along the Equator.

The mathematical description of a vector field on the surface of a sphere is quite complicated. In
studies of Earth’s field, it is usually done by multipole expansions. The field is assumed to be
made of the superposition of fields from a series of poles located at the centre of Earth. The first
pole in this expansion is a monopole corresponding to only one pole of a magnet. Since no
magnetic monopole has ever been observed, this term is not used. The next term is the dipole,
then the quadrupole, and so forth. When Earth’s field is described in this manner, it is found that
the dipole term accounts for more than 90 percent of the field. If the contribution from a centred
dipole is subtracted from the observed field, the residual is called the non-dipole field, or
regional geomagnetic anomaly.

Current maps of the regional anomaly for various components of the magnetic field show that
there is a large maximum in the South Atlantic and in Mongolia. This anomaly can be partially
explained by offsetting the best-fit dipole in an appropriate manner. Anomalies such as this
affect compass readings in polar regions and influence particles trapped in the outer field. They
also are responsible for the separation between the locations of the dipole poles and the
geomagnetic poles.
Magnetic surveys of Earth’s field have been conducted with increasing accuracy for well over
100 years. In recent times they have been conducted on approximately a 10-year schedule. For
each survey it is possible to define the dipole and non-dipole components of the field. It has been
found that both change systematically with time. The nature of these changes and their probable
explanations are discussed below in Sources of variation in the steady magnetic field.

In the multipole description of Earth’s field, it is shown that the effects of higher-order poles
decrease more rapidly with distance than those of the lower-order poles. The field of a
monopole, for example, decreases as the inverse square of distance, the dipole as the inverse
cube, and so on. Because of this property, it might be expected that the outer portions of Earth’s
field would be almost purely dipolar. Recent spacecraft observations, however, show that this is
not true. The field departs radically from that of a dipole at altitudes of only a few Earth radii.

Surface observations do not suggest that significant distortion of Earth’s field should occur close
to the planet. The technique of multipole expansion makes it possible to separate the observed
surface field into parts of origin internal and external to Earth. When surface observations are
averaged over several years, less than 1 percent of the surface field is produced by external
sources. Thus, the existence of the external distortion is surprising.

Sources of the steady magnetic field

The geomagnetic dynamo
Observations of the magnetic field of Earth’s surface indicate that more than 90 percent of this
field arises from sources internal to the planet. A variety of mechanisms for generating this field
have been proposed, but at present only the geomagnetic dynamo is seriously considered. In the
dynamo mechanism, fluid motion in the core moves conducting material across an existing
magnetic field and creates an electric current. This current produces a magnetic field that also
interacts with the fluid motion to create a secondary magnetic field with the same orientation as
the original field. The two fields together are stronger than the original. The additional energy in
the amplified field comes at the expense of a decrease in energy in the fluid motion.
Thermal heating in the core is the process that drives fluid motion. For many years it was thought
that this heating was caused by radioactive elements dissolved in the liquid core. Recent work
suggests that freezing of the liquid core is more important. Seismic studies have shown that the
centre of Earth is a solid sphere of iron with an approximate radius of 1,200 kilometres. This
sphere is surrounded by an outer core of liquid iron. With time, the inner surface of the liquid
core freezes onto the outer surface of the solid core. Energy released in the freezing process heats
the surroundings to a high temperature. The heat flows in all directions, raising the temperature
of adjacent regions. Because heat cannot be lost from the interior, it eventually flows to the
surface. There it is radiated into the cold of space as infrared radiation. This process establishes a
radial temperature distribution that decreases toward the surface. If heat is generated too rapidly
for conduction to carry it away, a second process, convection, becomes important. In convection,
energy is transported by bubbles of hot fluid that rise toward cooler regions, carrying more heat
than flows through the same material at rest.
Several conditions must be satisfied for the fluid motion to produce a magnetic field. First, the
fluid must be electrically conducting. Second, a magnetic field must be present, possibly as a
relict of the initial formation of the body. Third, some force must introduce twists into the fluid
motion so that the initial magnetic field becomes distorted by the motion. For Earth, liquid iron is
conducting, an initial magnetic field is likely, and the Coriolis force introduces twists. The
Coriolis force is the force felt by a fluid in or on a rotating body. It is the force that creates
cyclonic storms in Earth’s atmosphere, and in the Northern Hemisphere it causes a fluid rising
radially to rotate counterclockwise.

As discussed above, the simplest possible poloidal magnetic field is dipolar. Such a field could
be produced by a single loop of electric current circulating around Earth’s rotation axis in the
equatorial plane. The slight electric resistance of the conducting Earth, however, would long ago
have dissipated this current if it was not continuously regenerated. As the illustration makes
clear, this generation process is complex and depends on both radial motion and rotation of the
fluid core.
Crustal magnetization
Magnetic fields measured at Earth’s surface are not entirely produced by the internal dynamo.
Radially outward from Earth’s core, the next major source of magnetic field is crustal
magnetization. The temperature of the materials constituting the crust is cool enough for them to
exist in solid form. The solids may become magnetized by Earth’s main field and cause
detectable anomalies.
Crustal magnetization is of two types: induced and remanant. Induced magnetization occurs
when the elementary magnetic dipoles of crustal materials are aligned by Earth’s main field, just
as a compass needle is aligned. If a material of particularly high susceptibility to magnetization is
concentrated, as in a mineral deposit, it also can be approximated to a bar magnet that creates a
small dipole field. On the scale of such concentrations Earth’s main field is uniform, so,
depending on an observer’s location relative to the small dipole, its field may either add to or
subtract from the main field. Because induced magnetization is proportional to the strength of the
inducing field, it vanishes when the primary field vanishes.
Remanant magnetization is similar to induced magnetization in that it is produced in a material
by a primary field, but once created it persists after the primary field has disappeared. The
phenomenon depends on the presence of ferromagnetic materials that form “magnetic domains,”
regions of aligned dipoles held in place by interatomic forces. In Earth’s crust most remanant
magnetization is created by trapping the dipole alignment of Earth’s main field as molten rocks
harden.
The ionospheric dynamo
Above Earth’s surface is the next source of magnetic field, the ionospheric dynamo—an electric
current system flowing in the planet’s ionosphere. Beginning at about 50 kilometres and
extending above 1,000 kilometres with a maximum at 400 kilometres, the ionosphere is formed
primarily by the action of sunlight on atmospheric particles. There sunlight strips electrons from
neutral atoms and produces a partially ionized gas (plasma). On the dayside of Earth near local
noon and near the subsolar point, the Sun heats the ionosphere to high temperatures and causes it
to flow away from noon toward midnight in a roughly radial pattern. The flow moves both
neutral atoms and charged particles across Earth’s magnetic field lines. The Lorentz force,
discussed earlier, causes the charges to be deflected in opposite directions perpendicular to the
velocity of the charges and also the local field. This charge separation creates an electric field
that also exerts a force on the charged particles. The form of the resulting electric field
distribution is strongly dependent on the distribution of ionospheric conductivity and magnetic
field. It is generally assumed, for example, that there is little ionospheric conductivity on the
nightside and hence no current can flow there. As for the magnetic field, it points upward in the
Southern Hemisphere, horizontally northward at the Equator, and downward in the Northern
Hemisphere. The horizontal component of the magnetic field exerts a vertical force on charges
that move as a result of winds. At the Equator this causes the positive and negative charges to be
deflected vertically and produces a strong vertical electric field that impedes further separation of
the charges. At higher magnetic latitudes the magnetic field is primarily vertical and the
deflections are horizontal, producing horizontal electric fields.

In general, charges separated by mechanical or chemical forces, as in dynamos or batteries, will

discharge if there is an external electrical conductor through which they can flow. At high and
low latitudes this process occurs in the same medium that generates the charge separation. The
actual current path is particularly complex in the ionosphere because the electrical conductivity
is spatially inhomogeneous and anisotropic; i.e., it varies from point to point and has different
values in different directions relative to the magnetic and electric fields present.

The form of the electric currents flowing in the ionosphere has been deduced from ground
observations of daily variations in the magnetic field. On magnetically quiet days the field is
observed to change in a systematic manner dependent primarily on local time and latitude. This
variation has been dubbed the solar quiet-day variation, Sq. The magnetic variations can be used
to deduce an equivalent electric current system, which, if flowing in the E region of the
ionosphere, would produce the observed changes. This system was shown for the equinoctial
conditions of equal illumination of both hemispheres when the pattern was symmetrical about
the Equator. The pattern consisted of two current vortices circulating about foci at + and −30°
magnetic latitude. Viewed from the Sun, circulation was counterclockwise in the Northern
Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Approximately 500,000 amperes flowed
eastward parallel to the Equator between the two foci. Apart from small changes brought about
by daily rotation of small anomalies in the main field, the current and its effects at a fixed point
in space were nearly steady. A magnetic observatory, however, rotated beneath different parts of
the current system and recorded a time-varying magnetic field.

A detailed analysis of the daily variation reveals that several important factors contribute to the
ionospheric wind system driving the dynamo. The most significant of these is the solar heating of
the atmosphere. There is, however, a semidiurnal component caused by solar gravity that is
roughly half as large as the diurnal component. As in the oceans, the tidal effect of gravity
produces peaks in pressure at midnight as well as at noon. The resulting winds are more complex
than is the case for the diurnal component. Similarly, there is a semidiurnal lunar component
driven by lunar gravity. This variation is named the lunar daily variation, L.