[inquest]

OK, here's where I'm my ignorance is going to start showing. If there's a charge in an atmosphere, wouldn't there be an equal and opposite charge somewhere else in the atmosphere, or at the surface? That being the case, wouldn't the field generated by one area of charge be canceled by a field generated by the other?

[RightWhale]

Here's the trick: Neither the iron core nor the atmosphere has a net charge, yet the core supposedly has a magnetic field. How can something have a magnetic field and no net charge? Dipoles is one answer. How does your microwave oven work while there is no charge on the Cup-o-Soup? Dipoles. It comes back to dipoles. Are there dipoles in the atmosphere? Are there dipoles in iron magnets? Yes, indeed.