The interplay of fast waves and slow convection in geodynamo simulations nearing Earth's core conditions

TL;DR

This study uses advanced geodynamo simulations to explore how fast hydromagnetic waves interact with slow convection in Earth's core, revealing their spectral influence and potential observability in geomagnetic data.

Contribution

It provides the closest numerical modeling to Earth's core conditions, identifying wave classes and their spectral impacts, extending previous asymptotic analyses.

Findings

Alfvén waves dominate geomagnetic acceleration signals.

Wave energies increase with magnetic diffusion to Alfvén time ratio.

Detectability of Alfvén waves in geomagnetic data is supported.

Abstract

Ground observatory and satellite-based determinations of temporal variations in the geomagnetic field probe a decadal to annual time scale range where Earth's core slow, inertialess convective motions and rapidly propagating, inertia-bearing hydromagnetic waves are in interplay. Here we numerically model and jointly investigate these two important features with the help of a geodynamo simulation that (to date) is the closest to the dynamical regime of Earth's core. This model also considerably enlarges the scope of a previous asymptotic scaling analysis. Three classes of hydrodynamic and hydromagnetic waves are identified in the model output, all with propagation velocity largely exceeding that of convective advection: axisymmetric, geostrophic Alfv\'en torsional waves, and non-axisymmetric, quasi-geostrophic Alfv\'en and Rossby waves. The contribution of these waves to the geomagnetic acceleration amounts to an enrichment and flattening of its energy density spectral profile at decadal time scales, thereby providing a constraint on the extent of the $f^{-4}$ range observed in the geomagnetic frequency power spectrum. The flow and magnetic acceleration energies carried by waves both linearly increase with the ratio of the magnetic diffusion time scale to the Alfv\'en time scale, highlighting the dominance of Alfv\'en waves in the signal and the stabilising control of magnetic dissipation at non-axisymmetric scales. Extrapolation of the results to Earth's core conditions supports the detectability of Alfv\'en waves in geomagnetic observations, either as axisymmetric torsional oscillations or through the geomagnetic jerks caused by non-axisymmetric waves. In contrast, Rossby waves appear to be too fast and carry too little magnetic energy to be detectable in geomagnetic acceleration signals of limited spatio-temporal resolution.