Articles | Volume 15, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-15-873-2008
https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-15-873-2008
24 Nov 2008
 | 24 Nov 2008

Direct and inverse cascades in the geodynamo

M. Reshetnyak and P. Hejda

Abstract. The rapid rotation of planets causes cyclonic thermal turbulence in their cores which may generate the large-scale magnetic fields observed outside the planets. We investigate numerically a model based on the geodynamo equations in simplified geometry, which enables us to reproduce the main features of small-scale geostrophic flows in physical and wave vector spaces. We find fluxes of kinetic and magnetic energy as a function of the wave number and demonstrate the co-existence of forward and inverse cascades. We also explain the mechanism of magnetic field saturation at the end of the kinematic dynamo regime.