The monitoring of ocean currents is of primary importance for understanding sea water quality, climate change and the global CO2 budget. Currently, global monitoring of ocean currents relies mainly on satellite radar measurements of the dynamic sea surface height.

Magnetization of the lithosphere gives rise to a magnetic field which can be mapped by low orbiting satellites, as has been demonstrated by the POGO (1967-1971) and Magsat (1979-1980) missions. Following 20 years without suitable measurements, a continuous flow of high quality data from the CHAMP satellite is currently opening a new era in the mapping of lithospheric magnetic anomalies.

The core has a radius of 3480 km, which is a little more than half of the radius of the Earth. It consists of a solid inner core (radius of 1215 km) and a liquid outer core. The core is composed of 90% iron. It is a fairly good electrical conductor, with a conductivity estimated at 300,000 Siemens/m. To a good approximation (details), the flow of the core fluid carries along the magnetic field, as if it were frozen in. This leads to the gradual changes observed in the geomagnetic field at the Earth's surface.

The Main Magnetic Field originates from a dynamo process in the fluid outer core of the Earth. It strongly dominates over the various other contributions to the geomagnetic field, accounting for over 95% of the field strength observed at the Earth's surface.