3 ms·
Also, the swap apparently takes ages and during that time you have loads of magnetic poles floating about and the ionosphere dips by 80% or so. We currently hav
by inflatableDodo 7y ago
Also, the swap apparently takes ages and during that time you have loads of magnetic poles floating about and the ionosphere dips by 80% or so. We currently have a little north pole floating around the south Atlantic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Atlantic_Anomaly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Atlantic_Anomaly
- bmm6o 7y agoIs it really a "little north pole"? I don't know anything about it beyond what's in the WP article, but that doesn't sound like an accurate description.
- inflatableDodo 7y agoI reckon it isn't that inaccurate, especially given the reported behaviour of compasses. "From these models and extrapolating down into the Earth, it is known that regions of reversed flux at the core-mantle boundary have grown over time. In these regions the compass points in the opposite direction, in or out of the core, compared to that of surrounding areas. It is the growth in area of such a reversed flux patch under the south Atlantic that is primarily responsible for the decay in the main dipolar field. This reverse patch is also responsible for the minimum in field strength called the South Atlantic Anomaly, now centred over south America. In this region energetic particles can approach Earth more closely, causing increased radiation risk to low Earth orbit satellites." http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/education/reversals.html http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/education/reversals.html