This a project to combine results from dynamo theory with analysis of high quality paleomagnetic time series of secular variation derived from lake sediments, for the purpose of interpreting magnetic field variations through the Holocene in terms of the dynamics of the outer core. The research consists of two parts: (1) an analysis of published paleomagnetic secular variation data from North and South America, Australia and Eurasia using dynamically consistent models of propagating and standing wave fields, and (2) numberical simulations of kinematic dynamos with permanent dipolar fields and coexisting secular variation. The object is to identify the source of the low frequency paleomagnetic secular variation and to determine the dynamical structure of the outer core from which it originates.
