Screening secular geomagnetic field variations in South America

Abstract

This project will characterize the evolution of geomagnetic field behavior in the most interesting region of Earth by applying state of the art methods, already mastered by the applicant, to diverse sample types spanning a range of timescales. The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) is the most enigmatic feature of the present-day Earth's magnetic field but a dearth of data from South America prevents us from knowing how it has evolved over time and what its present behavior portends for the future of terrestrial shielding from harmful solar wind radiation. Currently, computational and physico-mathematical techniques allow the unification of direct and indirect records of the geomagnetic field into field models, thus enabling a better understanding about its variations over time. According to the most sophisticated models, there is a high and persistent secular variation in the southern hemisphere for the last few thousand years, but the data contribution from that region is ~4% of the global database. Therefore, in order to uncovering the features left by the ancient magnetic field (and its causes) in different materials of south-latitudes, this project is structured to enable the acquisition of new data of magnetic inclination, declination and intensity. At last, centennial- and millennial-scale variations, as well as detailing about SAA, will be revealed so that we can reflect a little more about what our planet has long carried within itself.