POWRE: Building a Research Program in Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism

9973602约翰逊该POWRE奖支持地磁学和古地磁学的重点研究，这将构成这些领域综合研究计划的一部分。 拟议的活动包括汇编和模拟与过去500万年全球地磁场行为有关的古地磁数据集。 虽然0- 500万年地磁场的总体特性已经为人们所知有一段时间了，但偏离这些一阶特性的意义--真实的场行为与数据集或建模技术的局限性--仍然难以捉摸。 然而，反映在时间平均结构，时间或长期的变化，和反转的字段行为的细节是重要的，因为它们可能是密切相关的条件在地球的核幔边界（CMB）。 越来越多的地震学证据表明，在大范围的空间尺度上，CMB附近下地幔的物理性质存在强烈的横向变化。 最近的地球发电机模拟表明，这种不均匀性可能会产生深远的影响外核的动力学，并在地球表面的地磁观测。 该研究将侧重于让本科生而不是研究生参与，以建立一个可以在主要本科院校继续担任教职的研究项目，并在短期内加强斯克里普斯海洋学研究所和加州大学圣地亚哥分校本科地球科学项目的研究和研究生项目之间的联系。 该奖项将为PI提供关键资金，在全职学术研究显著缺席之后。

9973602JohnsonThis POWRE award supports a focussed study in geomagnetism and paleomagnetism, which will constitute part of an integrated research program in these fields. The proposed activities comprise the compilation and modeling of paleomagnetic data sets pertaining to global geomagnetic field behavior over the past 5 Myr. While the gross properties of the 0-5 Myr geomagnetic field have been known for some time, the significance of departures from these first order characteristics- real field behavior versus limitations of data sets or modeling techniques- has remained elusive. However, the details of field behavior reflected in the time-averaged structure, temporal or secular variations, and reversals are important as they may be intimately related to conditions at Earth's core-mantle boundary (CMB). There is increased seismological evidence that strong lateral variations in the physical properties of the lower mantle near the CMB exist over a wide range of spatial scales. Recent geodynamo simulations indicate that such heterogeneities may have profound influences on the dynamics of the outer core, and on geomagnetic observables at the Earth's surface. The research will focus on involving undergraduate students, rather than graduate students in order to build a research program which could be continued as a faculty member at a primarily undergraduate institution, and in the short-term to strengthen ties between the research and graduate programs at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the UCSD undergraduate Earth science program. This award would provide critical funding for the PI, after a significant absence from full-time academic research.