Modelling the Earth's geomagnetic field to high degree and order.
Abstract
The authors present a method for modelling the Earth's magnetic field to very high degree and order in terms of spherical harmonics. The method exploits the orthogonality of the spherical functions, using, in part, the method of Gauss-Legendre quadrature. This method is compared to a simpler quadrature method (Newton-Cotes). The authors show that the Gauss-Legendre technique is more accurate in most cases than Newton-Cotes quadrature, and in all cases, even where the two give about the same results, that the Gauss-Legendre method is more efficient in that it requires less data and hence less computation. The two quadrature methods are applied to sets of radial field data computed from an n = 29 model which simulate Magsat observations.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical Journal International
- Pub Date:
- June 1989
- DOI:
- 10.1111/j.1365-246X.1989.tb00512.x
- Bibcode:
- 1989GeoJI..97..421S
- Keywords:
-
- Geomagnetism;
- Magnetic Field Configurations;
- Spherical Harmonics;
- Accuracy;
- Least Squares Method;
- Magsat Satellites;
- Quadratures;
- Geomagnetic Field: Models