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Mass Redistribution in the Core and Time-varying Gravity at the Earth's SurfaceThe Earth's liquid outer core is in convection, as suggested by the existence of the geomagnetic field in much of the Earth's history. One consequence of the convection is the redistribution of mass resulting from relative motion among fluid parcels with slightly different densities. This time dependent mass redistribution inside the core produces a small perturbation on the gravity field of the Earth. With our numerical dynamo solutions, we find that the mass redistribution (and the resultant gravity field) symmetric about the equator is much stronger than that anti-symmetric about the equator. In particular, J(sub 2) component is the strongest. In addition, the gravity field variation increases with the Rayleigh number that measures the driving force for the geodynamo in the core. With reasonable scaling from the current dynamo solutions, we could expect that at the surface of the Earth, the J(sub 2) variation from the core is on the order of l0(exp -16)/year relative to the mean (i.e. spherically symmetric) gravity field of the Earth. The possible shielding effect due to core-mantle boundary pressure variation loading is likely much smaller and is therefore negligible. Our results suggest that time-varying gravity field perturbation due to core mass redistribution may be measured with modem space geodetic observations, which will result a new means of detecting dynamical processes in the Earth's deep interior.
Document ID
20040013293
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Kuang, Wei-Jia
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Chao, Benjamin F.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Fang, Ming
(Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. MA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2003
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Meeting Information
Meeting: IUGG2003 Meeting
Location: Sapporo
Country: Japan
Start Date: June 30, 2003
End Date: July 11, 2003
Sponsors: International Council of Scientific Unions
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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