Award Abstract # 0537986
The Geomagnetic Field During the Holocene

NSF Org: EAR
Division Of Earth Sciences
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO
Initial Amendment Date: October 26, 2005
Latest Amendment Date: November 9, 2007
Award Number: 0537986
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Robin Reichlin
EAR
 Division Of Earth Sciences
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: January 1, 2006
End Date: December 31, 2009 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $310,001.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $310,001.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2006 = $86,777.00
FY 2007 = $108,625.00

FY 2008 = $114,599.00
History of Investigator:
  • Catherine Constable (Principal Investigator)
    cconstable@ucsd.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of California-San Diego Scripps Inst of Oceanography
8622 DISCOVERY WAY # 116
LA JOLLA
CA  US  92093-1500
(858)534-1293
Sponsor Congressional District: 50
Primary Place of Performance: University of California-San Diego Scripps Inst of Oceanography
8622 DISCOVERY WAY # 116
LA JOLLA
CA  US  92093-1500
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
50
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): QJ8HMDK7MRM3
Parent UEI: QJ8HMDK7MRM3
NSF Program(s): Geophysics
Primary Program Source: app-0106 
app-0107 

01000809DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 0000, OTHR
Program Element Code(s): 157400
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

The Geomagnetic Field during the Holocene

The Holocene covers the past 10 kyr, a period in which there has been tremendous growth in human knowledge and technology. Throughout this time records of the changing geomagnetic field have been preserved in archeological artifacts, recently erupted lava flows, and rapidly deposited sediments distributed around the world. Compilations of archeomagnetic and paleomagnetic records, whose dates can often be identified to high accuracy, are being used to make continuous time-varying geomagnetic field models that extend back to 10~ka. These regularized models, known as CALS10K, represent the spatial and temporal variations of the field with spherical harmonics and cubic B-splines respectively. Work under this proposal is improving existing models by updating data compilations, and developing new inversion techniques to incorporate records of relative geomagnetic paleointensity variations derived from sediments. Models with the highest possible temporal resolution are under development in order to study fine scale variations in geomagnetic dipole moment.

The resulting CALS10K models are going to be used to address a series of outstanding geomagnetic questions:

How dominant is the dipole over the longer term?

How long has the S. Atlantic magnetic anomaly existed? How has it evolved with time?

Is the magnetic field and its secular variation persistently lower in the Pacific than in the Atlantic hemisphere?

Is there observational evidence for wave motion in the geomagnetic field? On what time scales? What might be its physical origin?

Data sets, tools, and products that are being developed will be archived in the MagIC community database.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Constable, C.G., and M. Korte "Is Earth's magnetic field reversing?" Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. , v.246 , 2006 , p.1--16 10.1016/j.epsl.2006.03.038
Donadini, F., M. Korte, & C.G. Constable "The geomagnetic field for 0--3~ka, Part I: New data sets for high resolution global models" Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. , v.10 , 2008 , p.Q06007 10.1029/2008GC002295
Genevey, A, Y, Gallet, C.G. Constable, M.Korte, & G. Hulot "ArcheoInt : An upgraded compilation of geomagnetic field intensity data for the past ten millennia" Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. , v.9 , 2008 10.1029/2007GC001881
Korte, M., and C. G. Constable "On the use of calibrated relative paleointensity records to improve millennial-scalegeomagnetic field models" Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. , v.7 , 2006 , p.1 10.1029/2006GC001368
Korte, M., and C.G. Constable "Centennial to millennial geomagnetic secular variation" Geophys. J. International , v.167 , 2006 , p.43 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2006.03088.x
Korte, M., and C.G. Constable "Spatial and temporal resolution of millennial scale geomagnetic field models" Advances in Space Research , v.41 , 2008 , p.57 10.1016/j.asr.2007.03.094
Korte, M., F. Donadini, & C.G. Constable "The geomagnetic field for 0--3~ka, Part II: High resolution global time-varying models" Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. , v.10 , 2009 , p.Q06008 10.1029/2008GC002297

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