On magnetic spectra of Earth and Mars

Abstract

The spectral method for distinguishing crustal from core-source magnetic fields is reexamined, modified, and applied to both a comprehensive geomagnetic field model and an altitude normalized magnetic map of Mars. The observational spectra are fairly fitted by theoretical forms expected from certain elementary classes of magnetic sources. For Earth we find fields from a core of radius 3512 ± 64 km, in accord with the seismologic core radius of 3480 km, and a crust represented by a shell of random dipolar sources at radius 6367 ± 14 km, near the planetary mean radius of 6371.2 km. For Mars we find no sign of a core-source field, only a field from a crust represented in the same way, but at radius 3344 ± 10 km, about 46 km below the planetary mean radius of 3389.5 km, and with sources about 9.6 ± 3.2 times stronger.