Nakagawa, T and Davies, CJ orcid.org/0000-0002-1074-3815 (2022) Combined dynamical and morphological characterisation of geodynamo simulations. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 594. 117752. ISSN 0012-821X
Abstract
Numerical dynamo simulations cannot operate at the physical conditions of Earth's core, yet they often produce fields that appear morphologically similar to the present geomagnetic field. A key issue is therefore to decipher under what conditions “Earth-like” simulations can be achieved. Recent work has shown that a set of simulations undertaken along a specific path in parameter space smoothly approach the QG-MAC dynamics that are expected in Earth's core, whereby the leading order force balance is Quasi-Geostrophic with Magnetic, Archimedean and Coriolis forces equilibrating at first order. However, a systematic link between QG-MAC balance and morphological features of the simulated fields has yet to be established. Here we assess a suite of 67 simulations using established compliance criteria for the field morphology and scale-dependent force balances to quantify the internal dynamics. Morphological compliance with the modern geomagnetic field does not imply a single underlying force balance or vice versa; however, the majority of compliant simulations, including all those approaching a realistic value of the magnetic Reynolds number Rm, are in QG-MAC balance. Simulations that simultaneously achieve excellent morphological compliance with Earth's modern field, QG-MAC balance, and high Rm, are confined to an intermediate range of dipolarity (the ratio of energy in the dipole field to the energy truncated at degree 12 at the outer boundary). Reversing simulations in this dipolarity range maintain dominant QG-MAC balance during polarity transition, though inertia makes a non-negligible contribution to the force balance.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | geodynamo; geomagnetic field; force balance; magnetic field morphology |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst of Geophysics and Tectonics (IGT) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/T012684/1 NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/V009052/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 29 Jul 2022 15:02 |
Last Modified: | 30 May 2023 22:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117752 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:189488 |