HR: 15:10h
AN: U33B-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Liquid Sodium Laboratory Models of the Earth's Outer Core
AU: * Lathrop, D P
EM: dpl@complex.umd.edu
AF: University of Maryland, IREAP, College Park, MD 20904 United States
AB: Experiments in liquid sodium have become important to understanding several aspects of the Earth's outer core. I'll present a discussion of liquid metal experiments and the theory they have stimulated to better understand dynamo magnetic field generation and liquid metal turbulent convection. Three aspects will be discussed: (1) international efforts on liquid metal experiments and resulting theoretical models (2) a discussion of the mismatch between parameters in numerics, experiments and the Earth, and (3) a presentation of observations of liquid metal rotating convection and the resulting predictions regarding the Earth's core. The most recent rotating convection experiments yield an estimate for the power dissipation, relevant small scales in core processes, and a causal mechanism for the Earth's magnetic field strength. These different approaches to using laboratory experiments are opening up a new direction to understanding the dynamics of the Earth's outer core and other Planetary interiors.
UR: http://complex.umd.edu
DE: 8130 Heat generation and transport
DE: 5440 Magnetic fields and magnetism
DE: 3220 Nonlinear dynamics
DE: 1507 Core processes (8115)
DE: 1510 Dynamo theories
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting