A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF LARGE-SCALE MAGNETIC FIELDS, WITH EMPHASIS ON THE GALACTIC MAGNETIC FIELD NEAR THE SUN

We examine the observations of large-scale magnetic fields in the Universe. We begin at the largest scale with clusters of galaxies and work our way down through galaxies and finally to the Milky Way. on which we concentrate in detail. We examine the observations of the Galactic magnetic field, and their interpretation, under the philosophy that the Galactic magnetic field is like that in other spiral galaxies. We use pulsar data. diffuse Galactic synchrotron emission, and starlight polarization data to discuss the Galaxy's global magnetic configuration and the uniform ($B_u$), random ($B_r$), and total ($B_t$) components of the field strength. We find disagreement among conclusions derived from the various data sets and argue that the pulsar data are not the best indicator for large-scale Galactic field. Near the Solar circle, we find that the azimuthal average of $B_t$ is 4.2$\mu$G and we adopt $B_u\~$2.2 and $B_r\~3.6{\mu}G$. $B_t$ is higher in spiral arms, reaching $\~5.9{\mu}G$. $B_t$ is higher for smaller $R_{Gal}$, reaching $\~8.0{\mu}G$ for $R_{Gal}$ = 4.0 kpc. The pattern of field lines is not concentric circles but spirals. The inclination of the magnetic spiral may be smaller than that of the Galaxy's spiral arms if our sample, which refers primarily to the interarm region near the Sun, is representative. However, it is not inconceivable that the local field lines follow the Galaxy's spiral pattern, as is observed in external galaxies.