Earth's Magnetic Poles Could Start to Flip. What Happens Then?

[MULTIZ321]

Earth's Magnetic Poles Could Start to Flip. What Happens Then?
By Jonathan O'Callaghan/ Astronomy & Space/ Space Exploration/ From Horizon Magazine, Horizon: the EU Innovation & Research Magazine/ PhysOrg/ phys.org

"As Earth's magnetic shield fails, so do its satellites. First, our communications satellites in the highest orbits go down. Next, astronauts in low-Earth orbit can no longer phone home. And finally, cosmic rays start to bombard every human on Earth.

This is a possibility that we may start to face not in the next million years, not in the next thousand, but in the next hundred. If Earth's magnetic field were to decay significantly, it could collapse altogether and flip polarity – changing magnetic north to south and vice versa. The consequences of this process could be dire for our planet.

Most worryingly, we may be headed right for this scenario.

'The geomagnetic field has been decaying for the last 3,000 years,' said Dr. Nicolas Thouveny from the European Centre for Research and Teaching of Environmental Geosciences (CEREGE) in Aix-en-Provence, France. 'If it continues to fall down at this rate, in less than one millennium we will be in a critical (period).'

Dr. Thouveny is one of the principal investigators on the five-year EDIFICE project, which has been running since 2014. Together with his colleagues, he has been investigating the history of Earth's magnetic field, including when it has reversed in the past, and when it might again...."

The magnetic field protecting our planet originates deep in the Earth's core but fluctuates in strength over time. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

Richard

 

[Phydeaux]

One bonus of having a weaker magnetic field is that auroras will be visible from much lower latitudes, so the nighttime skies will be even more epic.

 

[DrQ]

One bonus of having a weaker magnetic field is that auroras will be visible from much lower latitudes, so the nighttime skies will be even more epic.

How do you think?

With the strong magnetic field, the particles are captured and concentrated to the poles. The Aurora's are visible in lower latitudes when more particles are captured from a larger storm. The dramatic undulations show strength within magnetic field.

With a weaker field, there will be less concentration and the glow will be more diffuse.

 

[Talent312]

Does this mean we should move to Chili or Argentina?
.

 

[Phydeaux]

Energetic electrically charged particles (mostly electrons) accelerate along the magnetic field lines into the upper atmosphere, where they collide with gas atoms, causing the atoms to give off light. Solar wind is always pushing on the Earth's magnetic field, changing its shape, hence the magnetosphere is dynamic in shape. The Earth's field is compressed on the day side, where the solar wind flows over it. It is also stretched into a long tail like the wake of a ship, which is called the magnetotail and points away from the Sun. Occasionally, when conditions are right, the build-up of pressure from the solar wind creates an electric voltage between the magnetotail and the poles, like the voltage between the two terminals of a battery. The voltage pushes electrons (which are very light) toward the magnetic poles, accelerating them to high speeds. In the ionosphere, the speeding electrons collide violently with gas atoms. This gives the gas atoms energy, which causes them to release both light and more electrons. In this way, the gases of the ionosphere glow and conduct flowing electric currents into and out of the polar region. The electrons flowing back out don't have as much energy as the speedy incoming ones had - that energy went into creating the aurora. Thereby, with a reduction in the earths magnetic field, the flux of the field alters the aurora, allowing it to be viewed from positions uncommon to the observer. Pretty simple, wouldn't you agree?

 

[DrQ]

Agreed with HOW the light is produced, BUT they are so spectacular at the poles because the magnetic field sweeps these particles from the whole surface from the sphere an concentrates them at the poles. With a weakened magnetic field, that concentration will not happen and the particles will penetrate at lower latitudes but at lower flux densities (less light).

 

[Phydeaux]

How do you think?

With the strong magnetic field, the particles are captured and concentrated to the poles. The Aurora's are visible in lower latitudes when more particles are captured from a larger storm. The dramatic undulations show strength within magnetic field.

With a weaker field, there will be less concentration and the glow will be more diffuse.

I didn't suggest the aurora would be more intense, I suggested the auroras will be visible from much lower latitudes, so the nighttime skies will be even more epic. To clarify, most people never experience the aurora, because of their latitude. These folks will then experience aurora due to the weakened magnetic fields.

 

[davidvel]

I didn't suggest the aurora would be more intense, I suggested the auroras will be visible from much lower latitudes, so the nighttime skies will be even more epic. To clarify, most people never experience the aurora, because of their latitude. These folks will then experience aurora due to the weakened magnetic fields.

I have no idea who is right, but I believe Dr Q is asserting that they will be less intense, if not diffused so much they don't really exist. Either way I'm not making any travel plans about an event that may or may not occur in the next 1,000 or 100 or 10 years...

 

[DrQ]

Add the fact that the particles are now being being gathered by the magnetic field and concentrated at the higher latitudes which have extended dark hours (winter-north, summer-south) which is when you view the Aurora's. If this concentration did not happen, the majority of the particles would be hitting on the sun facing side of the Earth.

 

[billymach4]

Fake News from Mainstream media.

 

[DrQ]

Mysterious Anomaly Under Africa Is Weakening Earth's Magnetic Field

PETER DOCKRILL
27 DEC 2018
Above our heads, something is not right. Earth's magnetic field is in a state of dramatic weakening– and according to mind-boggling research from earlier this year, this phenomenal disruption is part of a pattern lasting for over 1,000 years.
...
The region that concerns scientists the most at the moment is called the South Atlantic Anomaly – a huge expanse of the field stretching from Chile to Zimbabwe. The field is so weak within the anomaly that it's hazardous for Earth's satellites to enter it, because the additional radiation it's letting through could disrupt their electronics.

"We've known for quite some time that the magnetic field has been changing, but we didn't really know if this was unusual for this region on a longer timescale, or whether it was normal," physicist Vincent Hare from the University of Rochester in New York said in February this year.

One of the reasons scientists don't know much about the magnetic history of this region of Earth is it lacks what's called archeomagnetic data – physical evidence of magnetism in Earth's past, preserved in archaeological relics from bygone ages.

One such bygone age belonged to a group of ancient Africans, who lived in the Limpopo River Valley – which borders Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Botswana: regions that fall within the South Atlantic Anomaly of today.

Approximately 1,000 years ago, these Bantu peoples observed an elaborate, superstitious ritual in times of environmental hardship.

During times of drought, they would burn down their clay huts and grain bins, in a sacred cleansing rite to make the rains come again – never knowing they were performing a kind of preparatory scientific fieldwork for researchers centuries later.

"When you burn clay at very high temperatures, you actually stabilise the magnetic minerals, and when they cool from these very high temperatures, they lock in a record of the earth's magnetic field," one of the team, geophysicist John Tarduno explained.

As such, an analysis of the ancient artefacts that survived these burnings reveals much more than just the cultural practices of the ancestors of today's southern Africans.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Fake News from Mainstream media.

How is this fake news?

It is a observable and measurable phenomenon. Only thing they don't know for sure is what is the impact. So they are coming up with possible models to determine possible outcomes.

How do you think we discovered anything about the earth? This is the first time where we have the technology to measure it, that the change is starting to happen. At the very least the change in the possible in the magnetic north pole has been accelerating over the last decade or so.

We know that the poles have switched before, we have the alignment of iron in rock formation to show this.

 

[billymach4]

Sandy, for goodness sake. I was being sarcastic. Just like those morons that don't believe in Greenhouse gases causing global warming. They blame everything on Mainstream Media and Fake News. Yes I believe in facts and science.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Sandy, for goodness sake. I was being sarcastic. Just like those morons that don't believe in Greenhouse gases causing global warming. They blame everything on Mainstream Media and Fake News. Yes I believe in facts and science.

Well you never know around here. Sarcasm is hard to pick up in text ONLY media.

 

[bbodb1]

Well you never know around here. Sarcasm is hard to pick up in text ONLY media.

We need a button. Perhaps Brian could help here...

 

[billymach4]

sarcasm emoji

 

[bbodb1]

sarcasm emoji

Good Lord - that button is far too small!

 

[MULTIZ321]

Earth's Magnetic Field is Acting Up and Geologists Don't Know Why
By Alexandra Witze/ News/ Nature/ nature.com

"Erratic motion of north magnetic pole forces experts to update model that aids global navigation.

Update, 9 January: The release of the World Magnetic Model has been postponed to 30 January due to the ongoing US government shutdown.

Something strange is going on at the top of the world. Earth’s north magnetic pole has been skittering away from Canada and towards Siberia, driven by liquid iron sloshing within the planet’s core. The magnetic pole is moving so quickly that it has forced the world’s geomagnetism experts into a rare move.

On 15 January, they are set to update the World Magnetic Model, which describes the planet’s magnetic field and underlies all modern navigation, from the systems that steer ships at sea to Google Maps on smartphones.

The most recent version of the model came out in 2015 and was supposed to last until 2020 — but the magnetic field is changing so rapidly that researchers have to fix the model now. “The error is increasing all the time,” says Arnaud Chulliat, a geomagnetist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Centers for Environmental Information....."

Source: World Data Center for Geomagnetism/Kyoto Univ.


Richard

 

[jimf41]

Are they still selling those one-way tickets for the Mars trip?

 

[easyrider]

I didn't suggest the aurora would be more intense, I suggested the auroras will be visible from much lower latitudes, so the nighttime skies will be even more epic. To clarify, most people never experience the aurora, because of their latitude. These folks will then experience aurora due to the weakened magnetic fields.

This has been happening for a few years now. What many think are the Northern Lights are now showing up as a purplish light north of the Tropic of Capricorn and south of the Tropic of Cancer.

Bill

 

[Phydeaux]

This has been happening for a few years now. What many think are the Northern Lights are now showing up as a purplish light north of the Tropic of Capricorn and south of the Tropic of Cancer.

Bill

Especially after a few spliffs, right Bill?

 

[easyrider]

Especially after a few spliffs, right Bill?

Purple Haze ??? no, it is a purplish light in the night sky. I think they call it Steve.

https://komonews.com/news/local/mysterious-purple-glow-lights-up-eastern-wash-night-sky

Bill

 

[MULTIZ321]

Earth's North Magnetic Pole Sprints Toward Siberia
By David Szondy/ Science/ New Atlas/ newatlas.com

"North isn't quite where it was after the Earth's north geomagnetic polemade an unexpected sprint across arctic Canada. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), scientists at the agency's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) bureau have had to update its World Magnetic Model (WMM) almost a year early because the magnetic pole is moving faster than predicted, which could affect global navigation.

"I am as constant as the northern star," said Julius Caesar in Shakespeare's play of the same name, and it seems obvious that north must be an unchangeable fact in our lives. But is it?

In one sense, yes it is. The North Pole, which is the point marking the Earth's axis is constant within a reasonable degree. It may wobble a few inches a year due to tidal effects of the Sun, Moon, and planets, but it tends to stay put. The direction to the North Pole is what's known as true north......"

An update to the World Magnetic Model (WMM) was required early due to the north magnetic pole moving faster than expected(Credit: NOAA/NCEI)


Richard

 

[AJCts411]

Earth's Magnetic Field is Acting Up and Geologists Don't Know Why
By Alexandra Witze/ News/ Nature/ nature.com

"Erratic motion of north magnetic pole forces experts to update model that aids global navigation.

Update, 9 January: The release of the World Magnetic Model has been postponed to 30 January due to the ongoing US government shutdown.

Something strange is going on at the top of the world. Earth’s north magnetic pole has been skittering away from Canada and towards Siberia, ...

Those pesky Russians no doubt. Soon we will be walking on our hands, when the "earth flips".

 

[MULTIZ321]

The Mysterious Anomaly Weakening Earth's Magnetic Field Seems to Be Splitting.

The Mysterious Anomaly Weakening Earth's Magnetic Field Seems to Be Splitting

New satellite data from the European Space Agency (ESA) reveal that the mysterious anomaly weakening Earth's magnetic field continues to evolve, with the most recent observations showing we could soon be dealing with more than one of these strange ph

www.sciencealert.com

.


Richard