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Free keywords:
geomagnetic field models, archeomagnetism; lake sediments; paleointensity; Part II
DDC:
550 - Earth sciences
Abstract:
Steadily increasing numbers of archeo- and paleomagnetic data for the Holocene have allowed development of temporally continuous global spherical harmonic models of the geomagnetic field extending present and historical global descriptions of magnetic field evolution. The current work uses various subsets of improved data compilations (details in a companion paper by Donadini et al. , 2009, doi: 10.1029/2008GC002295) and minor modifications of Standard modeling strategies (using temporally and spatially regularized inversion of the data and cubic spline parametrizations for tempo¬ral variations) to produce five models with enhanced spatial and temporal resolution for 0-3 ka. Spurious end effects present in earlier models are eliminated by enforcing large scale agreement with the gufml historical model for AD 1650-1990 and by extending the model range to accommodate data older than 3 ka. Age errors are not considered as a contribution to data un-certainties but are included along with data uncertainties in an investigation of statistical uncertainty estimates for the models using parametric boot-strap resampling techniques. We find common features, but also significant differences among the various models, indicating intrinsic uncertainties in global models based on the currently available Holocene data. Model CALS3k.3 based on all available archeomagnetic and sediment data, without a priori quality selection, currently constitutes the best global representation of the past field. The new models have slightly higher dipole moments than our previous models. Virtual axial dipole moments (VADMs) calculated directly from the data are in good agreement with all corresponding model predictions of VADMs. These are always higher than the spherical harmonic dipole moment, indicating the limitations of using VADMs as a measure of geomagnetic dipole moments.
