Notes on the 1978 summer study program on dynamo models of geomagnetism in geophysical fluid dynamics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Abstract

This was the twentieth Geophysical Fluid Dynamics program at Woods Hole. Stephen Childress of the Courant Institute was our principal lecturer. Dynamo theory, with all its interdisciplinary facets was our central theme. Geomagnetism and the solar magnetic cycle were brought closer to comprehension, yet none claimed a detailed predictive theory was near at hand. Perhaps J. Keller's lecture, entitled "Smooth equations for rough problems", best characterized the nature of these studies. Even then, the smooth equations are quite nonlinear, with Finite-amplitude magnetic solutions yet to be explored. Lectures intertwined with those of Childress exposed us to topics beside and outside his emphasis on a convective geodynamo.