Fluid motions in the Earth's core inferred from time spectral features of the geomagnetic field.

Abstract

The aim of this work is to investigate the time spectral features of the main geomagnetic field fluctuations as measured on the Earth's surface in connection with a nontraditional turbulent dynamics of the fluid motions in the outer layers of the Earth's liquid core. The average geomagnetic field spectrum is found to be a power law, characterized by a spectral exponent alpha approximately -11/3, on time scales longer than 5 yr. We discuss the spectral exponent in connection with an intense magnetic field in the Earth's core and with a vortex coalescence process in a regime of drift-wave turbulence.