tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post7504440048319481012..comments2024-03-27T20:43:05.862-07:00Comments on The Eternal Universe: The Solar DynamoJoseph Smidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02583891162785742138noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-14216737579054617232008-03-04T16:52:00.000-08:002008-03-04T16:52:00.000-08:00The Earth's dynamo follows the same general dynamo...The Earth's dynamo follows the same general dynamo model as the sun's, however there are some differences that change the results of the geodynamo as compared to the solar dynamo. <BR/><BR/>The first has to do with that "frozen in" condition that I referenced. In a superconductor, the fluid is truely forced to flow along field lines. However, in the solar convection zone, there is some resistivity which means that the magnetic field is not completely frozen in place - it can and does slowly diffuse outward. In a sun spot, this diffusion is unimportant because sun spots only last on the order of weeks while the magnetic diffusion times are on the order of hundreds of years. The earth's core, however, has much higher resistivity than the solar interior or surface, so it allows magnetic fields to diffuse on much shorter time scales. <BR/><BR/>Also, the flows that power the dynamo in the earth's core are extremely slow (~100 meters per year) compared to flows in the solar interior (~1 kilometer per second). This leads to much weaker fields (~0.5 Gauss) in the Earth's magnetic field than the sun's (up to 1 kiloGauss). This makes the non-linear terms much more important in the sun than the earth.<BR/><BR/>Interestingly, the code we use to model the sun's interior was originally designed by Gary Glatzmaier to work on the Earth's dynamo. Gary Glatzmaier is widely credited with proving the mechanism for generating the Earth's magnetic field.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17367937708444729356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-42038163962420955012008-03-04T13:06:00.000-08:002008-03-04T13:06:00.000-08:00How close does the sun's dynamo model work in anal...How close does the sun's dynamo model work in analyzing the core of the earth I mean, there is hot plasma inside the earth which effects magnetic fields right? (If not this shows I didn't take geology.) How closely are these processes like those in the sun?<BR/><BR/>If they are similar, do you get "sunspot" type structures in the earth's core?<BR/><BR/>If these questions sound like I am completely uninformed it is because I am.<BR/><BR/>I guess the larger question I am getting at is: Do all plasmas in magnetic fields generate sunspot type structures? If so, might these be in things like the Earth's core assuming the earth's core has plasmas somewhere.Joseph Smidthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02583891162785742138noreply@blogger.com