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The Impact of Century-Scale Changes in the Core Magnetic Field on External Magnetic Field Contributions

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Abstract

The Earth’s internal magnetic field controls to a degree the strength, geographic positioning, and structure of currents flowing in the ionosphere and magnetosphere, which produce their own (external) magnetic fields. The secular variation of the Earth’s internal magnetic field can therefore lead to long-term changes in the externally produced magnetic field as well. Here we will examine this more closely. First, we obtain scaling relations to describe how the strength of magnetic perturbations associated with various different current systems in the ionosphere and magnetosphere depends on the internal magnetic field intensity. Second, we discuss how changes in the orientation of a simple dipolar magnetic field will affect the current systems. Third, we use model simulations to study how actual changes in the Earth’s internal magnetic field between 1908 and 2008 have affected some of the relevant current systems. The influence of the internal magnetic field on low- to mid-latitude currents in the ionosphere is relatively well understood, while the effects on high-latitude current systems and currents in the magnetosphere still pose considerable challenges.

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Acknowledgements

Part of this work was sponsored by a fellowship of the Natural Environment Research Council, grant number NE/J018058/1. I am grateful to Arthur D. Richmond for helpful comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript and to Christopher C. Finlay for useful discussions on the content of Sect. 5.

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  1. British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK

    Ingrid Cnossen

  2. GFZ German Center for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Ingrid Cnossen

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  1. Ingrid Cnossen
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Correspondence to Ingrid Cnossen.

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Cnossen, I. The Impact of Century-Scale Changes in the Core Magnetic Field on External Magnetic Field Contributions. Space Sci Rev 206, 259–280 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-016-0276-x

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