Laboratory Study of Spherical Convection in Simulated Central Gravity
Résumé
This work reports the first terrestrial laboratory study of thermal convection in a central body-force field. The force field is produced by gradients of magnetic field magnitude imposed on a spherical shell of heated, magnetizable fluid. Cells of thermal convection consistent with the notion of continental drift are detected using infrared imaging. Transitions of symmetry for the patterns of convection are observed in the range of Earth's Rayleigh number.
