Earth's magnetic field showing signs of significant weakening

Earth's magnetic field showing signs of significant weakening




The field is particularly weak over the South Atlantic Ocean – known as the South Atlantic Anomaly and the latest measurements confirm the movement of magnetic North towards Siberia.



Video copyright: ESA/Dot2Dot

‘Snapshot’ of the main magnetic field at Earth’s surface as of June 2014 based on Swarm data. The measurements are dominated by the magnetic contribution from Earth’s core (about 95%) while the contributions from other sources (the mantle, crust, oceans, ionosphere and magnetosphere) make up the rest. Red represents areas where the magnetic field is stronger, while blues show areas where it is weaker. image copyright: ESA/DTU Space

Swarm is ESA's first Earth observation constellation of satellites. The three identical satellites are launched together on one rocket. Two satellites orbit almost side-by-side at the same altitude – initially at about 460 km, descending to around 300 km over the lifetime of the mission. The third satellite is in a higher orbit of 530 km and at a slightly different inclination. The satellites’ orbits drift, resulting in the upper satellite crossing the path of the lower two at an angle of 90° in the third year of operations.

The different orbits along with satellites’ various instruments optimise the sampling in space and time, distinguishing between the effects of different sources and strengths of magnetism. Image copyright: ESA/AOES Medialab






Magnetic field:

#1 An introduction

Video courtesy ESA

#2 Why it matters

Video courtesy ESA

#3 Learning more with Swarm

Video courtesy ESA

Read more:

41 000 years ago, a complete and rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field occurred. As a consequence, the Earth nearly completely lost its protection shield against hard cosmic rays, leading to a significantly increased radiation exposure, a new study led by...


Featured image copyright ESA/ATG medialab

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ohilton576 3 years ago

CFC induced ozone depletion accelerated from the 70's, which in turn decreased protection from solar radiation, which in turn ramped up global warming. Solar radiation induced global warming is multiplied the further towards the crust we go. Increased mantle temperatures increase rate of change of magnetic columns. Also change in magnetic columns is caused by increased electromagnetic interference from increased exposure to solar radiation and cosmic rays, which in turn destabilises magnetic structure further. Man is responsible for catalysing the inevitable. The consequence is there mass extinction. But then again mankind doomed himself to extinction by the very way he evolved into becoming the dominant species on earth.

chris 4 years ago


óz 4 years ago

From what i have been studying this is the first time that humans have been through a poler shift. So the effects to people is going to be very damaging both to our own DNA as well as the way our brains interact with magnetic fields. This has been a correlation to the fall in magnectic field strength and the incress in human mental stablity as well as animal life as well. This can be seen in massive die off of birds, mammals and ocean life as well as viruse mutations. This could also incress the wether fenomenon as well as incressing the earths temprature becous of more radio active particals hitting of the earths outer crust. I have come to the same conclusion as Jamal Shrair.

Nick name 186973 4 years ago

The earth magnetic field movement is do to an incoming decay star which I list as 165.32k. It will probably arrive in 2024

Jamal Shrair 4 years ago

Increasing Evidence To My New Physics Theory: I have been arguing for years that the earth is in the final phase of changing its magnetic field. This fact is obvious from the increasing number of earthqukaes and volcanic eruption. I have stated repeatedly that the reason for the climate change and global warming is heat increase at the earth’s core. When the heat at the earth’s core will reach its critical level the earth will change its magnetic field and that will be accompanied by the eruption of huge number of volcanoes including super volcanoes. Now please see these latest news:

John Matthew Lane 4 years ago

I would like to know if you have any new news on the planet-x situation 8/23/2014 or about that time. I think I'm worrying myself but not sure could you help me in anyway.

Teo Blašković (@John Matthew Lane) 4 years ago

Don't worry about that.

Donb 4 years ago

How low does it have to become before the amount of cosmic radiation being let through becomes lethal the all living things on the planet? I imagine that we will start to see mutations in the animals with short gestation periods in the very near future!

Davidski 4 years ago

Hollywood will have a ball with this one.

wizard 4 years ago

These are all animations, where are the actual images.

Defiant 4 years ago

Must be a result of Global Warming!

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