Plesio-geostrophy for Earth’s core: I. Basic equations, inertial modes and induction

An approximation is developed that lends itself to accurate description of the physics of fluid motions and motional induction on short time scales (e.g. decades), appropriate for planetary cores and in the geophysically relevant limit of very rapid rotation. Adopting a representation of the flow to be columnar (horizontal motions are invariant along the rotation axis), our characterization of the equations leads to the approximation we call plesio-geostrophy, which arises from dedicated forms of integration along the rotation axis of the equations of motion and of motional induction. Neglecting magnetic diffusion, our self-consistent equations collapse all three-dimensional quantities into two-dimensional scalars in an exact manner. For the isothermal magnetic case, a series of fifteen partial differential equations is developed that fully characterizes the evolution of the system. In the case of no forcing and absent viscous damping, we solve for the normal modes of the system, called inertial modes. A comparison with a subset of the known three-dimensional modes that are of the least complexity along the rotation axis shows that the approximation accurately captures the eigenfunctions and associated eigenfrequencies.