Magnetic signals from oceanic tides: new satellite observations and applications.

Abstract

The tidal flow of seawater across the Earth's magnetic field induces electric currents and magnetic fields within the ocean and solid Earth. The amplitude and phase of the induced fields depend on the electrical properties of both seawater and the solid Earth, and thus can be used as proxies to study the seabed properties or potentially for monitoring long-term trends in the global ocean climatology. This article presents new global oceanic tidal magnetic field models and their uncertainties for four tidal constituents, including [Formula: see text] and even [Formula: see text], which was not reliably retrieved previously. Models are obtained through a robust least-squares analysis of magnetic field observations from the Swarm and CHAMP satellites using a specially designed data selection scheme. We compare the retrieved magnetic signals with several alternative models reported in the literature. Additionally, we validate them using a series of high-resolution global three-dimensional (3D) electromagnetic simulations and place constraints on the conductivity of the sub-oceanic mantle for all tidal constituents, revealing an excellent agreement between all tidal constituents and the oceanic upper mantle structure.This article is part of the theme issue 'Magnetometric remote sensing of Earth and planetary oceans'.