Helical core flow from geomagnetic secular variation

Fluid flow below the core-mantle boundary is inferred from geomagnetic secular variation data, assuming frozen magnetic flux and a new physical assumption termed helical flow, in which the tangential divergence correlates with the radial vorticity. Helical flow introduces streamfunction diffusion and removes non-uniqueness in the inversion of the magnetic induction equation. We combine helical flow with tangential geostrophy and compare the following physical assumptions: tangential geostrophy, strong helicity, weak helicity and columnar flow, using geomagnetic field models from the 2000 Oersted and 1980 Magsat satellites. Our solutions contain some features found in previous core flow models, such as large mid-latitude vortices, westward drift in most of the southern hemisphere, and suggested polar vortices. However, our solutions contain significantly more flow along contours of the radial magnetic field than previous core flow models. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.