A graphical interpretation of the electrical conductivity tensor

Abstract: Electrical conductivity plays a central role in many areas of space science. However, texts and research articles sometimes misquote the conductivity tensor. This highlights the need for authors and researchers to verify the accuracy of this tensor for their chosen coordinate system. This paper presents a new graphical method to analyze the correctness of the conductivity tensor, applicable to any coordinate system. This method also illuminates the physical meaning of the terms in the conductivity tensor, which is often obscured by standard mathematical derivations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]