School of Mathematics

Prof Chris A Jones

Professor of Applied Nonlinear Dynamics
Applied Mathematics

Contact details

Room: 9.21k
Tel: +44 (0)113 3435107
Email: C.A.Jones @ maths.leeds.ac.uk

Keywords

Magnetic field generation in the Earth and other planets
Thermal convection in rotating and magnetic systems
Winds in the giant planets
The solar dynamo
Pattern formation in strongly nonlinear systems

Research interests

My interests are in Geophysical and Astrophysical fluid dynamics. The Earth's core is continually stirred by convection as heat escapes from the deep interior. Since the core is mostly molten iron, these flows can generate electric currents which produce the Earth's magnetic field. By solving the equations governing convection in a rotating magnetic environment, we can understand the flow patterns, and hence discover how the Earth's magnetic field is created. The field patterns that emerge from the models can be compared with observed geomagnetic data, so we can use this data to probe the physical conditions in the core.

Similar ideas can be used to study the magnetic fields of other planets, and also to understand the origin of the very fast east-west winds that are seen on the giant outer planets. Since the density varies dramatically over the convecting regions in giant planets, I have been involved in developing computational methods based on the anelastic equations of fluid dynamics, which take the large density variation into account.

The mathematical part of this work involves understanding the behaviour of convection in the presence of rotation and magnetic field, both near onset and in the strongly nonlinear regime. This involves studying the bifurcations to new flow and field patterns, and hence the mathematics of nonlinear dynamics.

I am an Editor of the journal 'Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, and an Associate Editor of the journal 'Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics'.

Useful links

Link to personal pages about my research and teaching
Link to Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors
Link to Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics

Postgraduate students

Benjamin Hepworth (2010)
Vijayantee Teeluck (2009)
Stephanie Welsh (2009)
Jack Wood (2012)

Selected publications

Jones, C.A., 2011. Planetary magnetic fields and fluid dynamos. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 43,583-614.

Sreenivasan, B. and Jones, C.A., 2011. Helicity generation and subcritical behaviour in rapidly rotating dynamos. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, In Press (doi:10.1017/jfm.2011.233)

C.A. Jones, P. Boronski, A.S. Brun, G.A. Glatzmaier, T. Gastine, M.S. Miesch and J. Wicht, 2011. Anelastic Convection-Driven Dynamo Benchmarks. Icarus, In Press (doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2011.08.014)

Jones, C.A. and Kuzanyan, K.M., 2009. Compressible convection in the deep atmospheres of giant planets. Icarus, 204,227-238.