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Magnetoconvection refers to the thermal driving of flow within an electrically conducting fluid in the presence of an imposed magnetic field. In rapidly rotating systems like the Earth's fluid outer core, magnetoconvection offers a key insight into the intricate interaction between the effects of rotation and magnetic field. The simplest problem of magnetoconvection is given by a rotating plane horizontal layer of an electrically conducting Boussinesq fluid across which a uniform vertical magnetic field is imposed (Chandrasekhar, 1961; Roberts, 1978; Soward, 1979; Aurnou and Olson, 2001). The mathematical simplicity of the problem provides an essential understanding of the fundamental magnetohydrodynamic processes taking place in the Earth's fluid core. We shall use this example to illustrate these primary features of general magnetoconvection. For convenience and to avoid unnecessary complication, we assume that the fluid has constant viscosity ν, thermal diffusivity κ, and magnetic...

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© 2007 Springer-Verlag

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Zhang, K., Liao, X. (2007). Magnetoconvection. In: Gubbins, D., Herrero-Bervera, E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4423-6_201

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