Can flow induced in planetary liquid cores and subsurface oceans by orbital dynamics provide insights on interior structure and composition?

Full text: Many celestial bodies in our solar system may possess a fluid layer such as an liquid core or a subsurface ocean. In such a case, at first order one should expect the liquid to simply follow the mean rotation of the solid layers. However, due to the complex orbital dynamics of planets, e.g. precession, notation, liberation, departure from the state of pure solid body rotation is expected. The induced flow may result in a dissipation of energy, an enhanced heat transfer or an induced magnetic field on various time scales which may be observable. In the present study we focus on the flow induced by longitudinal liberation in planetary cores and subsurface oceans. We show that depending on the equatorial flattening of the liquid-solid interface the induced flow can be laminar or turbulent, which should have significantly different signature in observable such as the induced magnetic field. (author)