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Solar Flares are a commonly discussed phenomenon, which have effects ranging from geomagnetic storms to radio disruptions to absolutely nothing noticeable.

Given that part of the core of the Earth is molten, and magnetic, is there any evidence either way of the core of the Earth producing 'geoflares' like Solar Flares?

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  • $\begingroup$ We do know through paleomagnetic techniques that the strength of the Earth's magnetic field varies in location with time, such as the Levantine Iron Age geomagnetic anomaly (LIAA) where a regional magnetic field ~3,000 years ago was twice the strength of the global average. Are you looking for information like that, or are you looking for evidence that these magnetic field variations had some secondary effect? $\endgroup$ Commented May 26, 2018 at 14:30
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    $\begingroup$ Looking for any indication of abrupt geomagnetic effects originating from the core of the Earth rather than the Sun. $\endgroup$
    – Onyz
    Commented May 28, 2018 at 18:45
  • $\begingroup$ for other questions about jerks see earthscience.stackexchange.com/search?q=jerk $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Feb 3, 2020 at 3:24

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The medium for a solar flare is plasma, so nothing like that occurs in the Earth's core. The outer core fluid is highly conductive and has a low viscosity, so changes may occur in the core's field, but the mantle has enough electrical conductivity to filter out the more rapid changes (those with periods of roughly a year or less). See Merrill and McElhinny pp 49-51 for details. However, geomagnetic jerks have been observed. These are abrupt changes in the second time derivative of the Earth's magnetic field. Sometimes they are global, although mantle filtering can delay the jerk by different amounts at different locations on the Earth's surface.

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