Mars' Hemispheric Magnetic Field From a Full‐Sphere Dynamo

Abstract Seismic measurements from the NASA Mars InSight mission revealed that Mars' core has a relatively low density, implying a larger fraction of lighter elements than previously thought, which further leads to a low melting temperature. Thus, Mars probably never developed a solid inner core during its early history when the dynamo was active. We perform full‐sphere dynamo simulations to eliminate the influence of an inner core on dynamo behaviors and investigate how various magnitudes of heat flux perturbations at the core‐mantle boundary affect the field morphology, comparing results to those from models with small inner cores. We find that a hemispheric magnetic field can result when the heat flux is concentrated in one hemisphere. Moreover, a dynamo model without the presence of an inner core can better explain Mars' crustal magnetic field dichotomy than that in a spherical shell surrounding a solid inner core.

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Publication Details

Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Published
2025-02-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2024gl113926
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Planetary Science and Exploration
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.15

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article

Mars' Hemispheric Magnetic Field From a Full‐Sphere Dynamo

Chi Yan, S. Stanley, Anna Magdalena Mittelholz, C. L. Johnson et al.
1 citations
Geophysical Research Letters
Planetary Science and Exploration
1.15
article

Mars' Hemispheric Magnetic Field From a Full‐Sphere Dynamo

Chi Yan, S. Stanley, Anna Magdalena Mittelholz, C. L. Johnson, Ankit Barik, Ana‐Catalina Plesa
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Abstract Seismic measurements from the NASA Mars InSight mission revealed that Mars' core has a relatively low density, implying a larger fraction of lighter elements than previously thought, which further leads to a low melting temperature. Thus, Mars probably never developed a solid inner core during its early history when the dynamo was active. We perform full‐sphere dynamo simulations to eliminate the influence of an inner core on dynamo behaviors and investigate how various magnitudes of heat flux perturbations at the core‐mantle boundary affect the field morphology, comparing results to those from models with small inner cores. We find that a hemispheric magnetic field can result when the heat flux is concentrated in one hemisphere. Moreover, a dynamo model without the presence of an inner core can better explain Mars' crustal magnetic field dichotomy than that in a spherical shell surrounding a solid inner core.

Geophysical Research LettersVol. 52(3)
Planetary Science Institute (US), University of British Columbia (CA), Johns Hopkins University (US), Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (US), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR) (DE), University of Baltimore (US), The University of Texas at Austin (US)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Openalex Percentile: Top 21%
Planetary Science and Exploration
1.15
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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Mars' Hemispheric Magnetic Field From a Full‐Sphere Dynamo — Chi Yan, S. Stanley, et al. · Geophysical Research Letters (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS