Geosystemics: a systemic view of the Earth’s magnetic field and possibilities for an imminent geomagnetic transition

Abstract

Geosytemics is a way to see and study the Earth in its wholeness, together with the eventual couplings among the subsystems composing our planet. This paper will provide this view for the Earth’s magnetic field, reviewing most of the results obtained in our recent works. The main tools used by geosystemics are some nonlinear quantities, such as some kinds of entropy. Through them, it is possible to: a) establish the chaoticity and ergodicity of the recent geomagnetic field in a direct and simple way; b) indentify the most extreme events in its history, as the most rapid and the slowest ones, i.e. jerks and polarity changes (reversals or excursions). In particular, regarding the latter phenomena, with the help of these entropic concepts and together with the use of the theory of critical transitions, some clues can be given for a possible imminent change of the geomagnetic field dynamical regime.