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L.R. Alldredge

Publications and source records attributed to L.R. Alldredge.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2014

Aeromagnetic surveys in the Aleutian, Marshall, and Bermuda Islands

Total‐intensity aeromagnetic surveys of the Aleutian Marshall , and Bermuda Islands were completed in 1948. The anomalies associated with the Aleutian volcanoes are attributed mainly to topographic relief and are not an indication of the degree of volcanic activity. Eniwetok presents a magnetic pattern that would be produced by an irregular‐shaped rimmed depression in the basement, modified by the two adjoining seamounts, and differs from Bikini, whose magnetic features would be produced by a broad seamount with irregular surface relief. The Bermuda survey demonstrated magnetic features typical of volcanic rocks. Comparison of an observed and a theoretical profile computed by Press and Ewing indicates that their assumptions are reasonably correct. The Aleutian Trench survey shows anomalies that are attributed to susceptibility contrasts but none that can be correlated with the trench. A traverse from Adak, Aleutian Islands , to Kwajalein, Marshall Islands , exhibited several large anomalies that are presumed to be caused by susceptibility contrasts but may be indications of uncharted seamounts. Two traverses, one from Cape May, N.J., to Bermuda and the other from Bermuda to Long Island , N.Y., reveal a change in the magnetic field approximately 300 miles from the Atlantic Coast that indicates a possible thinning of the sial and an exposure of sima.

Bermuda↗
USGS2012

Magnetic signals from the core of the earth and secular variation

An oscillating, radial magnetic dipole source was assumed to exist in the core of the earth, 100 km beneath the core-mantle boundary. As an approximation, electromagnetic propagation was assumed in the core in lieu of hydromagnetic propagation, which could not be used because of unknown internal fields.Using Debye potentials, the radial and horizontal components of the surface fields were calculated using various assumed conductivity parameters in the core and in the mantle. It is concluded that most spherical harmonic models of the earth's magnetic field do not include enough terms to describe properly the field of core sources with periods of tens of years. These short-period variations are especially important in describing the secular variation. Because of this, a proper description of the secular variation requires more spherical harmonic terms than are required for the field itself. Inadequate representation of short-period variations in spherical harmonic models may contribute to the rapid deterioration of predictive models. Alternatives to spherical harmonic analysis for secular variation should be investigated; regardless of the method used, a much greater spatial distribution of high quality secular variation data is needed.

Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth↗
USGS2012

Geomagnetic local and regional harmonic analyses

Procedures are developed for using rectangular and cylindrical harmonic analyses in local and regional areas. Both the linear least squares analysis, applicable when component data are available, and the nonlinear least squares analysis, applicable when only total field data are available, are treated. When component data are available, it is advantageous to work with residual fields obtained by subtracting components derived from a harmonic potential from the observed components. When only total field intensity data are available, they must be used directly. Residual values cannot be used. Cylindrical harmonic analyses are indicated when fields tend toward cylindrical symmetry; otherwise, rectangular harmonic analyses will be more advantageous. Examples illustrating each type of analysis are given.

Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth↗
USGS2010

Main field and recent secular variation.

As Cain (1979) indicated might happen in the last IUGG quadrennial report, added resources were made available during the past few years and a real impulse was added to the geomagnetic work in the US by the launching of the MAGSAT Satellite. This new effort paid off in terms of new charts, additional long wavelength studies, and external source studies. As before, however, the future funding for new starts in geomagnetism does not look bright at the present time. A single MAGSAT in orbit a little more than seven months did wonders for main field (M.F.) charting, but did little or nothing for secular variation (S.V.) charting. It would take a number of repeated MAGSATS to help the S.V. picture. Meanwhile, the world magnetic observatory net and surface repeat stations remain as the main source of S.V. data. -from Author

Reviews of Geophysics and Space Physics↗
USGS1989

An attempt to obtain a detailed declination chart from the United States magnetic anomaly map

Modern declination charts of the United States show almost no details. Greater detail may be of value to surveyors trying to follow old land deed descriptions, or to pilots of small planes or small pleasure boats operating in inland waterways. It would be extremely expensive to make adequate declination measurements needed for such a chart. It was hoped that declination details could be derived from the information contained in the existing magnetic anomaly map of the United States. This could be realized only if all of the survey data were corrected to a common epoch, at which time a main-field vector model was known, before the anomaly values were computed. Because this was not done, accurate declination values cannot be determined. In spite of this conclusion, declination values were computed using a common main-field model for the entire United States to see how well they compared with observed values. The provisional geomagnetic reference field for 1978.5 was used as the main-field model. The computed detailed declination values were found to compare less favorably with observed values of declination than declination values computed from the IGRF 1985 model itself. This result indicates that the computed anomaly elements or their combination with main-field values cannot be used as accurate anomaly values, but they may be used as an indication of where anomalies probably occur.

Journal of Geomagnetism & Geoelectricity↗
USGS1988

New trend- trigonometric model for interpolation and prediction of the geomagnetic field utilizing the new DGRF models

At the IUGG Assembly at Vancouver during August 1987 new definitive geomagnetic reference field (DGRF) models to degree 10 for 1945, 1950, 1955, and 1960 were adopted by IAGA. Before these new DGRF models were accepted, the author developed a trend and trigonometric model (old trig model) based on the models IGRF 1945, IGRF 1950, IGRF 1955, IGRF 1960, DGRF 1965, DGRF 1970, DGRF 1975, DGRF 1980, and IGRF 1985, which were all approved by IAGA in Prague in August 1985. The old trig model consists of 720 trend and trigonometric coefficients for the calculation of spherical harmonic coefficients (SHC) only to degree eight because the early IGRF models were truncated there. These trend and Fourier sine coefficients can replace the equal number of SHC contained in the 9 DGRF-IGRF models.

Journal of Geomagnetism & Geoelectricity↗
USGS1987

On the interpretation of the geomagnetic energy spectrum

Two recent high-degree magnetic energy spectra, based mostly on MAGSAT data, are compared and found to agree very well out to order and degree n = 15, but the spectrum remains somewhat uncertain for higher degrees. The hypothesis that a primary break in the slope of the spectrum, plotted semi-logarithmically, is due to a transition from dominance by core sources to dominance by crustal magnetization is tested. Simple arrays of dipoles and current loops are found whose combined fields fit the spectrum. Two distinctly different ranges of source depth are found to be adequate. Because one range is shallow and the other deep, the hypothesis is supported. ?? 1987.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1987

Localized sudden changes in the geomagnetic secular variation.

There is much debate as to whether there was a worldwide geomagnetic jerk in 1969 or 1970. It is agreed that there was an unusual sharp change in the secular variation in the east component, Y, in Europe at that time. This note points out how a localized sudden change in the secular variation pattern of one component in Europe can occur without having any large worldwide effects in any of the components. The accompanying changes in the spherical harmonic coefficients for such a localized change are also discussed.

Journal of Geomagnetism & Geoelectricity↗
USGS1987

Current loops fitted to geomagnetic model spherical harmonic coefficients.

One hundred-sixty circular current loops with radial axes were fitted by least squares to the 899 spherical harmonic coefficients of a 29 th degree model. In the first case, the parameters that were fitted for each loop were the normalized magnetic moment, the distance from the center of the Earth to the current element, the colatitude and E. longitude of the loop axis, and one-half of the central apex angle of the loop. For this case, two of the loops converged near the inner-core outer-core boundary. They accounted for most of the dipolar field. Twenty of the loops, all with much smaller magnetic moments than the two deep loops, converged in the distance range of 0.42 to 0.67 Earth's radius from the center of the Earth. The other 138 loops, after many iterations, were located at distances between 0.81 and 1.0 Earth's radius from the center of the Earth. The loops with radial distances between 0.21 and 0.67 Earth's radius from the center of the Earth are referred to as “core” loops and those at distances greater than 0.81 Earth's radius as “crustal” loops. The spherical harmonic coefficients from these 160 loops, when subtraced from the 899 coefficients of the original model, left a root-mean-square residual of only 0.2nT. A second case was tried which constrained the 138 “crustal” loops to be at 0.996 Earth's radius (25.5km depth). In this case, the root-mean-square residual of the spherical harmonic coefficients from the original model was 0.9nT.

Journal of Geomagnetism & Geoelectricity↗
USGS1987

On regional geomagnetic charts

When regional geomagnetic charts for areas roughly the size of the United States were compiled by hand, some large local anomalies were displayed in the isomagnetic lines. Since the late nineteen sixties, when the compilation of charts using computers and mathematical models was started, most of the details available in the hand drawn regional charts have been lost. One exception to this is the Canadian magnetic declination chart for 1980. This chart was constructed using a 180 degree spherical harmonic model. It managed to show considerable detail, but even more detail might be useful. Suggestions are made about how more detail might be displayed in regional charts when adequate data are available.

Journal of Geomagnetism & Geoelectricity↗
USGS1986

Comments on 'Remarks on the secular change in the energy density spectrum of the geomagnetic field' by Joachim Meyer.

Meyer has discussed only the Rn aspect of the Alldredge (1984) paper he is criticising. He has ignored the pictorial demonstration of the need for higher harmonics to properly describe the secular variation field than the main field as demonstrated. This more or less independent demonstration supports the general conclusion of that paper.

Journal of Geomagnetism & Geoelectricity↗
USGS1986

Alternate forms of the associated Legendre functions for use in geomagnetic modeling.

An inconvenience attending traditional use of associated Legendre functions in global modeling is that the functions are not separable with respect to the two indices (order and degree). In 1973 Merilees suggested a way to avoid the problem by showing that associated Legendre functions of order m and degree m+k can be expressed in terms of elementary functions as P m m+k (θ)=sin m (θ)∑ k i=0 a m ki cos(iθ) where a m ki , the constants to be determined, are somewhat analogous to Fourier coefficients. Merilees noted that there are several advantages to using this form, but he also raises a question of precision for degree and order greater than 25. This note calls attention to some possible gains in time savings and accuracy in geomagnetic modeling based upon this form. For this purpose, expansions of associated Legendre polynomials in terms of sines and cosines of multiple angles are displayed up to degree and order 10. Examples are also given explaining how some surface spherical harmonics can be transformed into true Fourier series for selected polar great circle paths.

Journal of Geomagnetism & Geoelectricity↗
USGS1986

Fourier power spectra of the geomagnetic field for circular paths on the Earth's surface.

The Fourier power spectra of geomagnetic component values, synthesized from spherical harmonic models, have been computed for circular paths on the Earth's surface. They are not found to be more useful than is the spectrum of magnetic energy outside the Earth for the purpose of separating core and crustal sources of the geomagnetic field. The Fourier power spectra of N and E geomagnetic components along nearly polar great circle paths exhibit some unusual characteristics that are explained by the geometric perspective of Fourier series on spheres developed by Yee.

Journal of Geomagnetism & Geoelectricity↗
USGS1985

More on the alleged 1970 geomagnetic jerk

French and United Kingdom workers have published reports describing a sudden change in the secular acceleration, called an impulse or a jerk, which took place around 1970. They claim that this change took place in a period of a year or two and that the sources of the alleged jerk are internal. An earlier paper by this author questioned their method of analysis pointing out that their method of piecemeal fitting of parabolas to the data will always create a discontinuity in the secular acceleration where the parabolas join and that the place where the parabolas join is an a priori assumption and not a result of the analysis. This paper gives a very brief summary of this first paper and then adds additional reasons for questioning the allegation that there was a worldwide sudden jerk in the magnetic field of internal origin around 1970. These new reasons are based largely on new field models which give cubic approximations of the field right through the 1970 timeframe and therefore have no discontinuities in the second derivative (jerk) around 1970. Some recent Japanese work shows several sudden changes in the secular variation pattern which cover limited areas and do not seem to be closely related to each other or to the irregularity noted in the European area near 1970. The secular variation picture which seems to be emerging is one with many local or limited-regional secular variation changes which appear to be almost unrelated to each other in time or space. A worldwide spherical harmonic model including coefficients up to degree 13 could never properly depict such a situation. ?? 1985.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1980

Circular current loops, magnetic dipoles and spherical harmonic analysis.

Spherical harmonic analysis (SHA) is the most used method of describing the Earth's magnetic field, even though spherical harmonic coefficients (SHC) almost completely defy interpretation in terms of real sources. Some moderately successful efforts have been made to represent the field in terms of dipoles placed in the core in an effort to have the model come closer to representing real sources. Dipole sources are only a first approximation to the real sources which are thought to be a very complicated network of electrical currents in the core of the Earth. -Author

Journal of Geomagnetism & Geoelectricity↗
USGS1976

A study of alternative schemes for extrapolation of secular variation at observatories

The geomagnetic secular variation is not well known. This limits the useful life of geomagnetic models. The secular variation is usually assumed to be linear with time. It is found that attenative schemes that employ quasiperiodic variations from internal and external sources can improve the extrapolation of secular variation at high-quality observatories. Although the schemes discussed are not yet fully applicable in worldwide model making, they do suggest some basic ideas that may be developed into useful tools in future model work. ?? 1976.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1966

Magnetic data on the structure of the central Arctic Region

A study of 23,000 miles of total intensity aeromagnetic profiles in the central Arctic has been made by the U. S. Geological Survey and the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. The profiles were flown at 20,000 feet above sea level and cover approximately 1,350,000 square miles of the Arctic Ocean between the North Pole and the North American continent. When the profiles are smoothed to remove crustal anomalies, the resulting contoured values differ from the U. S. Hydrographic Office Chart 1703 N for 1955 corrected to 1951 by as much as 2000 gammas in the northern part of the Arctic Archipelago. A nondipole regional focus east of Greenland has decreased in amplitude but has changed very little in position since 1907.5. There is a profound difference in the magnetic characteristics of the rocks on either side of the underwater Lomonosov Ridge across the Arctic Ocean. In the Eurasian Basin the high-altitude profiles are relatively smooth or show only minor anomalies, but on the North American side of the ridge there is a large area of closely spaced, high-amplitude anomalies which has been designated the Central Magnetic Zone. Although the anomaly trends parallel the Alpha Rise, this zone is far more extensive, including nearly half of the Canadian Basin on one side and probably all the Central Arctic Basin on the other side of the rise. The Lomonosov Ridge is marked by a persistent anomaly of moderate size that indicates the presence of magnetic material in the ridge. Probable block-fault structures along the flanks of the Alpha Rise are associated with blocklike magnetic anomalies of comparable widths. A characteristic magnetic pattern occurs over an area of jagged bottom topography in the Eurasian Basin. A similar magnetic pattern over part of the Lena Trough may indicate another area of jagged topography. The belt of epicenters associated with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge continues through this rugged part of the Eurasian Basin, but the absence of the typical high magnetic anomaly makes it doubtful that the mid-oceanic ridge extends through this part of the Arctic . Magnetic data indicate that the thick sections of sedimentary rocks in the Paleozoic geosynclinal belts of northern Ellesmere Island and northern Greenland continue out under the adjacent continental shelves north of Greenland, west of the Arctic Archipelago, north of the part of Alaska east of Barrow, and under part of the Chukchi Shelf, and that they make up the bulk of the Nansen Swell off Spitsbergen. Thick sedimentary fill is indicated in the magnetically flat areas of the Eurasian Basin next to the Lomonosov Ridge and in the southern part of the Canadian Basin. The magnetic profiles on the Eurasian side of the Lomonosov Ridge closely resemble typical magnetic profiles over both Atlantic and Pacific oceans, where as the profiles of the Central Magnetic Zone on the North American side of the Lomonosov Ridge are completely unlike the oceanic data and show a striking similarity to typical profiles over the Precambrian rocks of the Canadian Shield and its buried equivalent under the Central Stable Region of the United States. Therefore, it is concluded that the Arctic region consists of a probable oceanic area on the Eurasian side and a basin formed by downdropped continental rocks, presumably a Precambrian complex similar to that of the Canadian Shield, on the North American side of the ridge.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗