The magnetic induction field due to the Earth only would, if undisturbed by any outside agency, resemble macroscopically the field due to a magnetic dipole. Hcwever the field is disturbed by the interplanetary magnetic field, of which the most important component is that of the Sun. If the Sun's magnetic field were effectively steady, it would also be a dipole field, and approximately constant in the region within about twenty earth radii from the earth. Also, if we treat the Sun as a dipole, its dipole axis is roughly normal to the ecliptic plane. The Earth, treated as a dipole, has an axis which is inclined to the normal to the ecliptic plane at an angle which varies daily from a few degrees to nearly a third of a right angle. However, in this paper, it is proposed to treat both dipole axes as contra-parallel and effectively normal to the ecliptic plane, so that a general idea of the combined field can be obtained. Then the effect of a steady field due to the Sun, on the Earth's field would be the formation of a "neutral ring" surrounding the Earth; that is, a closed "neutral line", this being a line of points at each of which the net nagnetic induction is zero. As the point of observation passes through this line, the field changes direction. Intro. p. v.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:rhodes/vital:5425 |
| Date | January 1977 |
| Creators | English, Daniel Rowe |
| Publisher | Rhodes University, Faculty of Science, Mathematics |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MSc |
| Format | 141 p., pdf |
| Rights | English, Daniel Rowe |
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