S.D. London
Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, Texas, USA
Numerical work indicates that resistive instability may be the dominant mode of instability in the Earth's outer core for realistic core parameter regimes. In this poster, the author discusses his ongoing project to obtain realistic analytic models for resistive instability. He studies a sequence of models which progress toward more geophysical realism, from relatively simple cylindrical shell models to more complex spherical shell models. In these models, an electrically conducting fluid is confined to a rotating shell with either conducting or insulating boundaries. WKB type methods are applied, with large or small parameters taken as the Elsasser number, the azimuthal wave number or the relative shell thickness. Stability results for some of these models are discussed.