Bonn 2020 – scientific programme
The DPG Spring Meeting in Bonn had to be cancelled! Read more ...
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik
EP 3: Poster session
EP 3.15: Poster
Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 16:30–18:30, Zelt
The effect of a strongly stratified layer in the upper part of Mercury’s core on its magnetic field — •Patrick Kolhey1, Daniel Heyner1, Johannes Wicht2, and Karl-Heinz Glassmeier1 — 1Technische Braunschweig, Institut für Geophysik und extraterrestrische Physik, Braunschweig, Germany — 2Max Planck Institut for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany
Since its discovery Mercury’s magnetic field has puzzled the community and modelling the dynamo process inside the planet’s interior is still a challenging task. Therefore new non-Earth-like models were developed over the past decades trying to match Mercury’s peculiar magnetic field. One promising model suggests a stably stratified layer on the upper part of Mercury’s core. Such a layer divides the fluid core in a convecting part and a non-convecting part, where the magnetic field generation is mainly inhibited. As a consequence the magnetic field inside the outer core is damped very efficiently passing through the stably stratified layer by a so-called skin effect. Additionally, the non-axisymmetric parts of the magnetic field are vanishing, too, such that a dipole dominated magnetic is left at the planet’s surface.In this study we present new direct numerical simulations of the magnetohydrodynamical dynamo problem which include a stably stratified layer on top of the outer core. We explore a wide parameter range, varying mainly the Rayleigh and Ekman number in the model under the aspect of a strong stratification of the stable layer. We show which conditions are necessary to produce a Mercury-like magnetic field and give a inside about the planets interior structure.