The magnetic “postturbation” and the current vortices of Schmidt

Abstract

The recent article, by Dr. Adolf Schmidt, in the Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 1889, p. 385» entitled, “Uber die Ursache der Magnetishen Stürme,” induces me to return to my paper, published in the same journal (1895, p. 321), “Die Erdmagnetische Nachstörung,”. The phenomena of disturbance described in my paper, examined anew by the light of Dr. Schmidt's considerations on moving current‐vortices, furnish, in my opinion, new indications for an explanation of the nature of magnetic disturbances. For this purpose I propose to recapitulate briefly the chief results of the investigations concerning the phenomenon described by me, which I term the magnetic “postturbation,” or the magnetic after‐disturbance effect.The daily means of the magnetic elements observed at the different observatories formed the principal basis for these inquiries. A superficial look at those quantities—e. g., for Pawlowsk—shows that immediately after a magnetic storm the horizontal force is generally less than it was before, and that it increases during the following days. A synoptical tabulation of a number of such series of diurnal means confirmed this result; it showed, in the majority of cases, that the horizontal force increases regularly after any magnetic storm, and that the westerly declination decreases. The vertical component mostly decreased, though not with the same regularity.