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A Millennium of Geomagnetism

Reviews of Geophysics, 40(3), p.1-1 to 1-30, Sept 2002
David P. Stern, Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771

Table of Contents


Clicking on any marked section on the list below brings up a file containing it and all unmarked sections immediately following it on the list. This list is repeated at the beginning of each file.

  1. Introduction
  2. Early discoveries
  3. William Gilbert
  4. Halley
  5. Coulomb
  6. Oersted and Ampere
  7. The Lodestone
  8. Gauss and Humboldt
  9. Explorations and Surveys
  10. Faraday's Lines of Force (field lines)
  11. Faraday's Disk Dynamo
  12. Sunspots
  13. The Dynamo Process on the Sun
  14. The Earth's Dynamo
  15. Dipole Reversals and Plate Tectonics
  16. Magnetic Storms and Ring Currents
  17. The Magnetosphere
  18. Magnetic Reconnection
  19. Planetary Magnetospheres
  20. Assessment

Chronology of Geomagnetism

References: A-G
References: H-P
References: Q-Z

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  •     Roberts, Paul H. and Gary A. Glatzmaier, Geodynamo theory and simulations, Rev. Mod. Phys. 72(4), 1081-1123, October 2000.

  •     Runcorn, Keith The Radial Variation of the Earth's Magnetic Field, Proc. Phys. Soc. 61, 373-382, 1948,

  •     Runcorn, S. Keith, The Earth's Magnetism, Scient. Amer. 193, p. 152-162, September, 1955

  •     Schröder, Wilfried (ed.) Geomagnetism (Research: Past and Present), 248 pp, (Proceeding of a symposium of the Interdivisional Commission on History of IAGA, August 1999), W. Schröder, D-28777, Bremen-Roennebeck, 2000.

  •     Schuster, Arthur, Causes of terrestrial magnetism, Proc. Phys. Soc., London, A24, 121-137, 1912

  •     Segré, Emilio, From Falling Bodies to Radio Waves, x + 298 pp, W.H. Freeman 1984.

  •     Serson, Paul, Tracking the north magnetic pole, New Scientist, 4 June 1981, p. 616-618

  •     Shamos, Morris H. Great Experiments in Physics, viii + 370 pp., Holt-Dryden 1959

  •     Singer, Siegfried Fred, A New Model of Magnetic Storms and Aurorae, Transact. AGU (Later renamed Eos), 38, 175-190, 1957.

  •     Smith, Julian A., Precursors to Peregrinus: The early history of magnetism and the mariner's compass in Europe, J. of Medieval History 18, 21-74, 1992.

  •     Smith, Edward J. Theoretical and Experimental Aspects of Ring Currents, p. 316-73 in Space Science, xvii+668 pp., D.P. LeGalley, editor, John Wiley and Sons 1963

  •     Steenbeck, M., F. Krause and K-H. Rädler, Berechnung der mitteren Lorentz-Feldstärke VxB für ein elektrisch leitendes medium in turbulenter durch Coriolis-Kräfte beeinflusser Bewegung (Calculation of the mean Lorentz-field intensity VxB for an electrically conducting medium in turbulent motion affected by Coriolis forces), Z. f. Naturforschung 21a, 369-376, 1966.

  •     Stern, D.P., A conversation with Jim Dungey, Eos (Transact. Amer. Geophys. Union) 67, 1394-5, 1986

  •     Stern, David P., A brief history of magnetospheric physics before the spaceflight Era, Rev. Geophys., 27, 103-114, 1989.

  •     Stern, David P.. A brief history of magnetospheric physics during the space age, Rev. Geophys. 34, 1-37, 1996.

  •     Stern, David P. and N.F. Ness, Planetary Magnetospheres, Ann. Rev.Astron. Astroph., 20, 139-161, 1982.

  •     Störmer, Carl, The Polar Aurora, xix +403 pp., Oxford 1955

  •     Thrower, Norman J.W. (ed), The Three Voyages of Edmond Halley in the Paramore: 1698-1701, Haklyut Society, London 1981

  •     Vershuur, Gerritt L., Hidden Attraction: The History and Mystery of Magnetism, Oxford U. Press, 1993.

  •     Vine, Fred J. and Drummond H. Matthews, Magnetic Anomalies over Oceanic Ridges, Nature, 199, 947- 9 1963. (reprinted by Cox, p. 232-7)

  •     Walén, C, On the distribution of the solar general magnetic field and remarks concerning the geomagnetism and the solar rotation, Ark. Mat. Astron .Fys. 33-A, no 18, 1946

  •     Warwick, James W., The Relation of Angular Momentum and Magnetic Fields: Schuster's Hypothesis Revisited, Phys, Earth and Planet. Interiors, 4, 229-232, 1971.

  •     Wasilewski, Peter J., Magnetic and microstructural properties of some lodestones, Phys. Earth. Planet. Interiors, 15, 349-362, 1977.

  •     Wasilewski, Peter and Günther Kletetschka, Lodestone: Nature's only permanent magnet-what it is and how it gets charged, Geophys. Res. Lett, 26, 2275-8, 1 August 1999.

  •     Watson, E.C., Portraits of William Gilbert, Amer. J. Physics, 12, 303-4, 1944.

  •     Wegener, Alfred, The Origin of Continents and Oceans, Dover Books 1966. Translated by John Biram from the 4th revised edition of Die Enstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane, Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig, 1929.

  •     Williams, L. Pearce, Michael Faraday--A Biography, Basic Books inc., 1965

  •     Williams, L. Pearce, André-Marie Ampére, Scientific American, 260, no. 1, p. 90-7, January 1989

  •     Wright, Helen, Explorer of the Universe, 480 pp., E.P. Dutton & Co., NY 1966. (republished by Amer. Inst. of Physics, 1994)


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Author and Curator:   Dr. David P. Stern
     Mail to Dr.Stern:   earthmag("at" symbol)phy6.org

Last updated 31 January 2003

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