Geomagnetism

April GeoRoundUp: the best of the Earth sciences from the 2018 General Assembly

Olivia Trani May 4, 2018

Scientists present research findings at a press conference at the 2018 General Assembly (Credit: EGU / Keri McNamara)

The 2018 General Assembly took place in Vienna last month, drawing more than 15,000 participants from 106 countries. This month’s GeoRoundUp will focus on some of the unique and interesting stories that came out of research presented at the Assembly. Mystery solved The World War II battleship Tirpitz was the largest vessel in the German navy, stationed primarily off the Norwegian coastline as a fo ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Chilean relics of Earth’s past

Anita Di Chiara March 12, 2018

Sunset, LLaima volcano and eruptions' relicts . Credit: Anita Di Chiara (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

As Earth’s environment changes, it leaves behind clues used by scientists to paint portraits of the past: scorched timber, water-weathered shores, hardened lava flows. Chile’s Conguillío National Park is teeming with these kind of geologic artifacts; some are only a few years old while others have existed for more than 30 million years. The photographer Anita Di Chiara, a researcher at Lancaster U ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Magnetic interaction

Laura Roberts-Artal October 30, 2017

Magnetic interaction . Credit: David Bernard (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu).

Space weather is a ubiquitous, but little known, natural hazard. Though not as tangible as a volcanic eruption, storm or tsunami wave, space weather has the potenital to cause huge economic losses across the globe. In Europe alone, the interaction of solar wind with our planet’s magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere, could lead to disrutions to space-based telecommunications, broadcasti ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: The anomaly in the Earth’s magnetic field which has geophysicists abuzz

Laura Roberts-Artal September 21, 2017

The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA, the large red area in the image) is a dip in the Earth's magnetic field which allows cosmic rays, and charged particles to reach lower into the atmosphere. This interferes with communication with satellites, aircraft, and the Space Shuttle. While there are theories as to why this occurs, the geologic origin is not yet known. The data were collected by the South Atlantic Anomaly Detector (SAAD) aboard ROSAT. It consists of 10 cm² of Germanium and served as a particle background monitor. The SAAD was used to "safe" the PSPC if rates became too high. Source: ROSAT SAA Guest Observer Facility (NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre) . Credit: S. L. Snowden

Geotalk is a regular feature highlighting early career researchers and their work. In this interview we speak to Jay Shah, a PhD student at Imperial College London, who is investigating the South Atlantic Anomaly, a patch over the South Atlantic where the Earth’s magnetic field is weaker than elsewhere on the globe. He presented some of his recent findings at the 2017 General Assembly. First, coul ...[Read More]