Geomagnetism and Electromagnetism: Topics and Notes for SIOG 231

 

 


 

SIOG231 is jointly taught by

 

Steven Constable (sconstable@ucsd.edu), Munk 326,  

and

Cathy Constable (cconstable@ucsd.edu), Munk 329,

 

Meets Winter 2024 Tues/Thurs 9:30-10:50 am

 

SIOG 231, Geomagnetism and Electromagnetism, will cover the theory of geomagnetism and electromagnetic induction, instrumentation, forward and inverse modeling of data, properties of Earth materials, and applications.  Earth's magnetic field shields life, and even the atmosphere itself, from the solar wind, and is used by organisms from bacteria to birds for navigation (humans too).  Observations of Earth's internal and external magnetic fields are used to understand how the core geodynamo works, and to image the electrical conductivity structure of the crust and mantle by means of the magnetotelluric method.  The magnetotelluric method has become an important tool, often used alongside seismic methods, to study a variety of geological processes, and is used extensively on land and at sea both commercially and academically. 

 

Topics to be covered are listed below. Students will be expected to complete homework assignments designed to develop hands-on skills in manipulating geomagnetic and electromagnetic data.  Grading will be based on active class participation, homework, and a final project.

 

Prerequisite: graduate standing or consent of instructors.

 

Link to Syllabus

 

Lecture 1- 01/09/2024

Topics: Introduction, motivation, history, overview of the applications

Reading:  Chapter 1, notes, pages 1-15

            Slides for Lecture 1 (pdf), or Keynote

 

Lecture 2- 01/11/2024

Topics: Classical Electrodynamics

Reading:  Chapter 2

            Slides for Lecture 2 (pdf), or Keynote

 

Homework 1 - due 1/18/2024

 

 

Lecture 3- 01/16/2024

Topics: Lorentz Force, Diffusion Equations, Electromagnetic Sounding

Reading:  Chapter 3 notes

            Slides for Lecture 3(pdf), or Keynote

           

Lecture 4- 01/18/2024

Topics: Instrumentation

Reading:  Chapter 4 notes

Slides for Lecture 4(pdf), or Keynote -updated 1/22/2024

 

Homework 2 - due 1/25/2024

 

 

Lecture 5- 01/23/2024

Topics: Gauss’ Theory and the Main Geomagnetic Field

Reading:  Chapter 5 notes

Slides for Lecture 5(pdf), or Keynote – updated 1/23/2024

 

 

Lecture 6- 01/25/2024

Topics: Spherical harmonic representation, internal/external separation, upward and downward continuation

Slides for Lecture 6(pdf) or Keynote – updated 1/25/2024

 

Lecture 7- 01/30/2024

Topics: Secular Variation and Geomagnetic Power Spectra

Slides for Lecture 7(pdf) – updated 1/30/2024

Gufm1 animation

GGF100k animation

Link to EOS article on the World Magnetic Model

 

Lecture 8- 02/01/2024

Topics: Earth’s external geomagnetic and electromagnetic environment.

Reading:  Chapter 8 notes

Slides for Lecture 8(pdf) or Keynote  updated 2/1/2024

 

Solutions to Homework 1

 

Homework 3 - due 2/13/2024

           

Data sets for homework:

CHAOS average field model chaos7_9_av_lm  

MAGSAT pass331.dat

 

Link to Grand Spectrum paper

Using magnetic fields to predict tsunami wave height

 

Lecture 9- 02/06/2024

Topics: Geomagnetic depth sounding + Fitting data: Least squares, errors, parameter estimation.

Reading:  Chapter 9 notes

Slides for Lecture 9(pdf) or Keynote – updated 2/5/2024

 

 

Lecture 10- 02/08/2024

Topics: Main field modeling, regularization.

Reading:  Chapter  10 notes

Slides for Lecture 10 (pdf) or Keynote  updated 2/11/2024

 

Lecture 11- 02/13/2024

Topics: Lithospheric fields, magnetic remanence, Runcorn’s theorem.

Reading:  Chapter 11 notes

Slides for Lecture 11 (pdf) or Keynote – updated 2/12/2024

 

Lecture 12- 02/15/2024

Topics:  The one-dimensional Earth - Forward modeling using finite differences and finite elements.

Reading:   Chapter 15 notes

Slides for Lecture 12 (pdf) or Keynote - updated  2/15/2024 - fixed a few typos

Homework 4 – due 02/27/2024 - updated  2/14/2024

 

Lecture 13- 02/20/2024

Topics: The Magnetotelluric Method.

Reading:   Chapter 14 notes

Slides for Lecture 13(pdf) or Keynote  updated 2/20/2024

 

Lecture 14- 02/22/2024

Topics: The Geodynamo: Toroidal and poloidal fields, Magnetohydrodynamics in Earth’s Core I

Reading:  Chapter 12-13 notes

            Slides for Lecture 14 (pdf) or Keynote  - updated 2/22/2024

 

Lecture 15- 02/27/2024

Topics: Magnetohydrodynamics in Earth’s Core II

Reading:  Chapter 12-13 notes

Slides for Lecture 15 (pdf) or Keynote

 

Lecture 16- 02/29/2024

Topics:  Modeling in Higher Dimensions

Reading:  Chapter 16a - The Two-Dimensional MT Forward Problems, notes from Bob Parker

Slides for Lecture 16 (pdf) or Keynote

 

Lecture 17- 03/05/2024

Topics:  Regularized Inversion

            Reading:  Chapter 17

Slides for Lecture 17 (pdf) or Keynote

 

Lecture 18- 03/07/2024

Topics:  Electrical conductivity of rocks, minerals, and melts. The crust, mantle, and core.

Reading:  Chapter 18Electrical conductivity of Rocks

Slides for Lecture 18 (pdf) or Keynote

 

______________________

 

 

Lecture 19 - 03/12/2024

Topics:  The Solar Dynamo

Reading: review paper by Charbonneau (2014) doi: 10.1146/annurev-astro-081913-040012

Slides for Lecture 19 (pdf) or Keynote

 

Homework 5 - due 3/21/2024

 

Lecture 20 - 03/14/2024

Topic: From the Sun to Earth's core: The EM response of the sunspot cycle and the conductivity of the lowermost mantle

           Slides for Lecture 20 (pdf) or Keynote        

 

 

 

Background Stuff: A few resources for getting started if you forgot or never learned EM as an undergraduate.

Basic physics of magnetic fields, Chapters 5-7, of Introduction to Electrodynamics, David J. Griffiths,

4th Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Div and Curl Grant Sanderson on his Youtube channel 3blue1brown, which has some useful visualization and intuition about divs and curls.

More things are covered at an elementary level in Khan Academy

e.g., Laplacian intuition, …. Harmonic functions

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/multivariable-calculus/multivariable-derivatives/laplacian/v/laplacian-intuition

 

Supplementary References, Geomagnetism:

 

Foundations of Geomagnetism

George Backus, Robert Parker, Catherine Constable

Cambridge University Press, New York 1996

 

Introduction to Electrodynamics, David J. Griffiths,

4th Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2017.

 

Treatise on Geophysics, Volume 5, Geomagnetism

Volume Editor: M. Kono. Editor-in-Chief: G. Schubert

Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2015, 2nd Edition.

[available online from UCSD in electronic format]

Technical summaries of many current topics in geomagnetic and electromagnetic research.

 

Treatise on Geophysics, Volume 8, Core Dynamics

Volume Editor: P. Olson. Editor-in-Chief: G. Schubert

Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2015, 2nd Edition.

[available online from UCSD in electronic format]

Technical summaries of many current topics in core dynamics.

 

Space Science reviews volume on Planetary Magnetism at http://link.springer.com/journal/11214/152/1/page/1

And Terrestrial Magnetism http://link.springer.com/journal/11214/155/1/page/1

 

Earth’s Electromagnetic Environment Surv Geophys DOI 10.1007/s10712-015-9351-1

 

Potential Theory in Gravity and Magnetic Applications

Richard J. Blakely

Cambridge University Press, New York 1995

Available online

Another look at potential theory, specifically in the context of gravity and geomagnetism.