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Sources of the Geomagnetic Field and the Modern Data That EnableTheir Investigation

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Handbook of Geomathematics

Abstract

The geomagnetic field one can measure at the Earth’s surface or on board satellites is the sum of contributions from many different sources. These sources have different physical origins and can be found both below (in the form of electrical currents and magnetized material) and above (only in the form of electrical currents) the Earth’s surface. Each source happens to produce a contribution with rather specific spatiotemporal properties. This fortunate situation is what makes the identification and investigation of the contribution of each source possible, provided appropriate observational data sets are available and analyzed in an adequate way, to produce the so-called geomagnetic field models. Here a general overview of the various sources that contribute to the observed geomagnetic field, and of the modern data that enable their investigation via such procedures is provided.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Actually the satellite revisits that region already after about 12 h, but this will be for a different local time. Because of external field contributions—which heavily depend on local time—it is safer to rely on data taken at similar local time conditions, which results in the above-stated sampling recurrence of 24 h.

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Olsen, N., Hulot, G., Sabaka, T. (2010). Sources of the Geomagnetic Field and the Modern Data That EnableTheir Investigation. In: Freeden, W., Nashed, M.Z., Sonar, T. (eds) Handbook of Geomathematics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01546-5_5

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