Jonathan M Aurnou

  • Professor at the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences
  • UCLA
  • https://epss.ucla.edu/people/faculty/543/

Professor Aurnou runs the Simulated Planetary Interiors Laboratory (SPINLab) in UCLA’s Department of Earth an Space Sciences (ESS), where they study large-scale fluid dynamical phenomena occurring in and on planets. This is done through a mix of laboratory experiments and numerical modeling. “Overall, it is a pretty good time.”

Sessions

  • Why Does Earth’s Magnetic Field Point North?

    In this talk, I will describe the shape of Earth’s global magnetic field and some of its interesting behaviors. Then I will show why magnetic compasses work by presenting experiments carried out in my lab at UCLA that explain why Earth’s magnetic poles tend to align with the planet’s axis of rotation.