Summary
Satellite magnetic field observations have the potential to provide information on dynamics, heat content and salinity throughout the ocean. It is well established that the ocean generates a time-varying magnetic field that depends on its motions and electrical conductivity structure. With ten years of high quality observations available from the Swarm satellite trio, and with recent advances in geomagnetic field modelling and data processing strategies, there are now new possibilities for extracting this signal of interest.
The Swarm for Ocean dynamics project aims to retrieve the Ocean-Induced Magnetic Field (OIMF) signal, going beyond previously identified tidal signals, and to interpret it with the help of advanced numerical simulations using the latest oceanographic information. The project involves (i) a dedicated scheme for processing Swarm satellite data including corrections for known signals of magnetospheric and ionospheric origin, (ii) high resolution global modelling of the time-dependent internal field at Earth’s surface (iii) spatio-temporal filtering to isolate the time-varying OIMF signal, and (iv) analysis of high resolution numerical simulations based on 4D oceanic flows and conductivities.
