NSFGEO-NERC: The history of the Earth's magnetic field strength over the last five million years: Filling in the southern hemisphere gap

Despite significant progress, fundamental questions regarding the average field strength and its variation through time remain. We are particularly interested in the hypothesis that the magnetic field has a persistent hemispheric asymmetry, an idea supported by long-term (5 Myr) data compilations. We propose here a multi-pronged approach of determining the optimum experimental/analysis strategy combined with new sampling missions (targeting the Southern Hemisphere)in order to fill in gaps in the global database. We will also undertake a new data analysis of existing data sets to obtain the best possible picture of the ancient magnetic field over time.