title: Little Earth Experiment: An instrument to model planetary cores.
abstract: In this paper, we present a new experimental facility, Little Earth Experiment, designed to study the hydrodynamics of liquid planetary cores. The main novelty of this apparatus is that a transparent electrically conducting electrolyte is subject to extremely high magnetic fields (up to 10 T) to produce electromagnetic effects comparable to those produced by moderate magnetic fields in planetary cores. This technique makes it possible to visualise for the first time the coupling between the principal forces in a convection-driven dynamo by means of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) in a geometry relevant to planets. We first present the technology that enables us to generate these forces and implement PIV in a high magnetic field environment. We then show that the magnetic field drastically changes the structure of convective plumes in a configuration relevant to the tangent cylinder region of the Earth's core.
authors: Applied Mathematics Research Centre, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, United Kingdom.
authors: Kélig
authors: K
authors: Aujogue
authors: Applied Mathematics Research Centre, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, United Kingdom.
authors: Alban
authors: A
authors: Pothérat
authors: Applied Mathematics Research Centre, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, United Kingdom.
authors: Ian
authors: I
authors: Bates
authors: Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses-Grenoble, CNRS/UJF, Grenoble, France.
authors: François
authors: F
authors: Debray
authors: Centre for Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India.
authors: Binod
authors: B
authors: Sreenivasan