Earth's Magnetic Field

This volume provides a comprehensive view on the different sources of the geomagnetic field both in the Earth’s interior and from the field’s interaction with the terrestrial atmosphere and the solar wind. It combines expertise from various relevant areas of geomagnetic and near Earth space research with the aim to better characterise the state and dynamics of Earth’s magnetic field. Advances in the exploitation of geomagnetic observations hold a huge potential not only for an improved quantitative description of the field source but also for a better understanding of the underlying processes and physics. Key is the separation of the field sources in the observations, especially, but not solely, during times of quiet geomagnetic conditions, when the most subtle geomagnetic effects can be identified and become significant. The collected articles are based on the current constellation of ground and space observations, and on state-of-the-art empirical models and physics-based simulations. Thus, it provides an in-depth overview over recent achievements, current limitations and challenges, and future opportunities in the field of geomagnetism and space sciences.



Originally published in Space Science Reviews, Volume 206, Issue 1-4, March 2017

• Earth's Magnetic Field
• Geomagnetic Sources
• Earth's Interior
• geomagnetic large-scale spatial and long-term variations
• near-Earth electrodynamics

• Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ, Potsdam, Germany

  Claudia Stolle

• DTU Space National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark DTU Space National Space Institute, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

  Nils Olsen

• National Center for Atmospheric Research, High Altitude Observatory National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, USA

  Arthur D. Richmond

• Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden

  Hermann J. Opgenoorth

Claudia Stolle is head of the Geomagnetism section at GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) Potsdam and Professor of Geomagnetism at the University of Potsdam, Germany. Her research interests include ionospheric physics with focus on plasma, geomagnetic, and navigational observations. She has been involved in the scientific product design of the Swarm satellite constellation mission. She is author or co-author of over 60 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.  

Nils Olsen is a professor of geophysics at the Technical University of Denmark and at the Niels Bohr Institute of Copenhagen University. His scientific interests cover the various contributions to Earth’s magnetic field, spanning from core dynamics to ionospheric and magnetospheric magnetic field contributions and their use in probing the conductivity of Earth’s interior. He is head of the Swarm DISC consortium, which is responsible for the scientific exploitation of the Swarm satellite constellation mission. Nils hasauthored or co-authored more than 140 peer-reviewed articles and book contributions.

Arthur Richmond is a senior scientist in the High Altitude Observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, USA.  His principal research interest is the dynamics and electrodynamics of the Earth’s upper atmosphere, including numerical and empirical modelling and the analysis of observations. He is author or co-author of over 200 publications.

Herman Opgenoorth is Professor at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics in Uppsala. His principal research interests are the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetosphere, the upper atmosphere, and the ionosphere of Earth and other planets (such as Mars). He also has a background in science mission management as former Head of Solar and Solar Terrestrial and later Solar System Missions at ESA. His scientific work on coordinated space and ground-based observations has resulted in 200 publications and a number of books.

Policies and ethics