Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmgp22b..07g&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #GP22B-07
Physics
1507 Core Processes (8115), 1510 Dynamo Theories, 1535 Reversals (Process, Timescale, Magnetostratigraphy), 5707 Atmospheres: Structure And Dynamics, 5724 Interiors (8147)
Scientific paper
Three-dimensional, dynamically self-consistent, numerical simulations have been used for two decades to study the generation of global magnetic fields in the deep fluid interiors of planets and stars. In particular, the number of geodynamo models has increased significantly within the last five years. These simulations of magnetic field generation by laminar convection have provided considerable insight to the dynamo process and have produced large-scale fields similar to those observed. However, no global convective dynamo simulation has yet been able to afford the spatial resolution required to simulate turbulent convection, which surely must exist in these low-viscosity fluids. They have all employed greatly enhanced eddy diffusivities to stabilize the low resolution numerical solutions and crudely account for the transport and mixing by the unresolved turbulence. A grand challenge for the next generation of geodynamo models is to produce a simulation with the thermal and viscous (eddy) diffusivities set no larger than the actual magnetic diffusivity of the Earth's fluid core (2 m2/s), while using the core's dimensions, mass, rotation rate and heat flow. This would correspond to the Ekman and magnetic Ekman numbers both set to 10-9 and the Rayleigh number being many orders of magnitude greater than critical. Dynamo models for stars and planets present an additional complication: the large variation of density with radius. A grand challenge for the next generation of these models is to reach similarly low Ekman numbers and high Rayleigh numbers with a density that decreases by at least three orders of magnitude from the base of the convection zone to the model's outer boundary. The advances in numerical methods and massively parallel computing needed to meet these challenges will be discussed.
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