Bottom-up control of geomagnetic secular variation by the Earth’s inner core

The pattern of geomagnetic secular variation observed on the Earth's surface is shown to be reproduced by two mechanisms relying on the inner core; this bottom-up heterogeneous driving of outer-core convection dominates top-down driving from mantle thermal heterogeneities. Julien Aubert et al. show that the pattern of geomagnetic secular variation observed on the Earth's surface can be reproduced by two mechanisms relying on the inner core — gravitational coupling aligning the inner core with the mantle and differential inner-core growth, which is fastest below Indonesia. They conclude that this bottom-up heterogeneous driving of outer-core convection dominates top-down driving from mantle thermal heterogeneities, and localizes magnetic variations in a longitudinal sector centred beneath the Atlantic. Temporal changes in the Earth's magnetic field, known as geomagnetic secular variation, occur most prominently at low latitudes in the Atlantic hemisphere1,2 (that is, from −90 degrees east to 90 degrees east), whereas in the Pacific hemisphere there is comparatively little activity. This is a consequence of the geographical localization of intense, westward drifting, equatorial magnetic flux patches at the core surface3. Despite successes in explaining the morphology of the geomagnetic field4, numerical models of the geodynamo have so far failed to account systematically for this striking pattern of geomagnetic secular variation. Here we show that it can be reproduced provided that two mechanisms relying on the inner core are jointly considered. First, gravitational coupling5 aligns the inner core with the mantle, forcing the flow of liquid metal in the outer core into a giant, westward drifting, sheet-like gyre6. The resulting shear concentrates azimuthal magnetic flux at low latitudes close to the core–mantle boundary, where it is expelled by core convection and subsequently transported westward. Second, differential inner-core growth7,8, fastest below Indonesia6,9, causes an asymmetric buoyancy release in the outer core which in turn distorts the gyre, forcing it to become eccentric, in agreement with recent core flow inversions6,10,11. This bottom-up heterogeneous driving of core convection dominates top-down driving from mantle thermal heterogeneities, and localizes magnetic variations in a longitudinal sector centred beneath the Atlantic, where the eccentric gyre reaches the core surface. To match the observed pattern of geomagnetic secular variation, the solid material forming the inner core must now be in a state of differential growth rather than one of growth and melting induced by convective translation7,8.