The recent satellite missions dedicated to measuring the Earth’s magnetic field have increased the amount of magnetic field data considerably. With the new high quality data, the understanding of the Earth’s magnetic field is improving rapidly and new and better descriptions of the magnetic field models are continuously being developed. The resolution of magnetic field models of the crustal field is now approaching a level, where it becomes possible to use them for geological and geophysical interpretation.
The magnetic crust is that part of the crust that can sustain a magnetic field. Its upper boundary is the bedrock surface, thus it does not include sediments or ice sheets. The lower boundary of the magnetic crust is given the depth to Curie temperature of the crustal rocks. In this paper, it is first explained how satellite magnetic field models are prepared for interpretation. Then the equivalent source magnetic dipole method (ESMD) is introduced and it is explained how we can use it to derive magnetic crustal thickness from the data.
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