Approaching a realistic force balance in geodynamo simulations Article Swipe
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· 2016
· Open Access
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· DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1608998113
· OA: W2531438100
Significance Flow in Earth’s liquid core is expected to be primarily governed by the Coriolis force due to Earth’s rotation, the buoyancy force driving the convection, and the Lorentz force due to the geomagnetic field. A relevant geodynamo model has to be in such a force balance. Contemporaneous simulations invoke high viscosities to suppress flow turbulence to keep the computational costs manageable. The unrealistically large viscosity in these simulations is a major concern. Here we show that the state-of-the-art simulations with a viscosity that is lower than in most simulations, but still much larger than in Earth’s core, can approach a realistic force balance. Our simulations produce many properties that have been theoretically predicted in the past.
