Paper on double-diffusive translation of the inner core published in Geophys. J. Int.

Renaud Deguen’s paper, co-authored by Thierry Alboussière and myself, presents results from linear stability analysis and direct numerical models of double-diffusive convection in Earth’s inner core. Convection can happen if a destabilizing compositional gradient is established in the inner core during its formation, even if the temperature field is stabilizing. Get all the details in [the paper]!

Snapshots of (top) potential temperature (higher values in red, lower values in blue) and streamlines (grey lines) of the flow. Bottom, light element concentration (higher values in red, lower values in blue) and streamlines (grey lines) of the non-translation component of the flow, for various values of the thermal and compositional Rayleigh numbers (as labeled on top) and the phase change number (P, on the right).