from the magnetic-field-finally-flipping? dept.
The earth's magnetic field, which protects the planet from huge blasts of deadly solar radiation, has been weakening over the past six months, according to data collected by a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite array called Swarm. The biggest weak spots in the magnetic field which extends 370,000 miles (600,000 kilometers) above the planet's surface have sprung up over the Western Hemisphere, while the field has strengthened over areas like the southern Indian Ocean, according to the magnetometers onboard the three Swarm satellites, with two separate satellites floating in tandem.
The scientists who conducted the study are still unsure why the magnetic field is weakening, but one likely reason is that Earth's magnetic poles are getting ready to flip, said Rune Floberghagen, the ESA's Swarm mission manager. In fact, the data suggest magnetic north is moving toward Siberia. "Such a flip is not instantaneous, but would take many hundred if not a few thousand years," Floberghagen told Live Science. "They have happened many times in the past."( 50 Amazing Facts About Planet Earth )
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According to new reasearch from Queen's and Aberystwyth Universities, the Sun's magnetic field is 10 times stronger than previously believed.
Studying a particularly strong solar flare allowed researchers to quantify the sun's magnetic field more precisely than in the past.
Speaking about the accuracy of the results, Dr. Kuridze, a Research Fellow at Aberystwyth, stated:
"This is the first time we have been able to measure accurately the magnetic field of the coronal loops, the building blocks of the sun's magnetic corona, which such a level of accuracy."
The weak signal reaching Earth and limitations of equipment have hindered previous measurements.
There was also serendipity involved:
Over a 10-day period in September 2017, Dr. Kuridze studied an active area on the sun's surface which the team knew to be particularly volatile.
However, the telescope used can only focus on 1% of the sun's surface at any given time. As luck would have it, Dr. Kuridze was focused on exactly the right area and at the right time when the solar flare erupted.
Now I'm not saying what caused this increase in measured magnetism, but some might say there was some field filching going on. It has been reported that the Earth's magnetic field is weakening 10 times faster than previously estimated.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Dunbal on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:38PM
Quick, a tax on all magnets and the generation of any sort of electromagnetic field be it from fridge magnets on opening/closing fridge doors to copper coils with current flowing through them! That should fix it!
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:41PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_joke [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:55PM
Oh, for mod points. I fear that your humour was not appreciated by all.
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Thursday July 10 2014, @01:15PM
I took me some 10 mins to get this :)
Nicely done.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:56PM
Sorry for possibly being on topic, but a rate like 5% a decade implies this is going to impact mechanical compass design and usability pretty rapidly. Compasses are not going to be useless when it hits zero, but quite awhile before it. Of course when the big geomagnet is switched "off" you'll easily get interesting effects from iron ore deposits. Also I remember something about during boot up and shutdown, the dipole goes multimodal sometimes so we might have multiple north pole and multiple south poles for awhile.
I looked it up before making this post and the magnetic declination of my home town has increased almost 4 degrees since I was a kid, which is interesting and semi-related (both the field strength AND pole position are varying)
We will do just fine for navigation without compasses because we have GPS, well, until the first big solar flare. After that we have LORAN, oh wait that's shut down. Well, we have OMEGA, oh wait thats shut down ... you see where this is going ...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TK on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:04PM
We'll still be able to use the sun and the stars, right? Those aren't about to go out, right? Right?
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:29PM
Kinda. I guess if you live in the desert you'll be OK but we just finished an "unusually rainy June" at 20 days of rain. Admittedly 20 days with rain doesn't imply continuous overcast all day, then again continuous overcast all day also doesn't imply rain (at least not locally).
If you never wanna see the stars again, just go buy a telescope, somehow its a law of nature that every skywatching night will be ruined for at least weeks. Go ahead, buy a scope and see what happens, I dare you. The recent rainy month wasn't my fault but someone around here must have bought a telescope...
You'd think for all the F ing around humans have done because of droughts, someone would just buy some kid an astronomical telescope to get torrential rainfall. Then again I've been told in the original language, the actual cause of Noah's flood leading to his ark etc was some bastard invented the telescope, leading to 40 nights of rain oh and the day too.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:03PM
Here in MT, yesterday was our 16th day (if I haven't lost count) without rain since it stopped snowing back about mid-April. When the poles move, do the magnets move too?? Cuz I'm pretty sure a rain magnet has migrated here, possibly from Seattle. [thinking] Now that you mention it, it may not be coincidence that last fall, someone gift me a telescope.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 10 2014, @06:42AM
I bought a telescope back in November 2000, a Celestron FirstScope 114. As I put it together, cloud gathered over the city. I had at most half an hour of clear viewing that night, and seven weeks of uninterrupted cloud followed.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Thursday July 10 2014, @07:17AM
"If you never wanna see the stars again, just go buy a telescope, somehow its a law of nature that every skywatching night will be ruined for at least weeks. Go ahead, buy a scope and see what happens, I dare you. "
Hahahahaha, hell, I don't need to buy a scope. The last four meteor showers have all been overcast, as well as nearly every other major sky watching event. So, if I can't see a real one, I added a mod to Skyrim that gives it random meteors and periodic showers. It has been five consecutive showers now and every one overcast. I can't even watch a simulated meteor shower.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2, Informative) by FlyingSock on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:02PM
The magnetic pole moving around is actually not a problem at all, as long as it does not happen rappidly.
Nautical maps already have a diagram showing the disparity between geographic and magnetic north to allow the navigator to compensate by adjusting the course passed to the helmsman by the deviation (called missweisung in german). The helmsman then uses the magetic compass as before.
Hence as long as the movement of the pole is not rapid it is simply be published in the yearly releases of nautical maps and business continous as usal.
http://www.wassersport-akademie.org/Powerkurse/Sportbootf%C3%BChrerscheinSeeSBFSee/PowerkursSBFSee/Lernhilfen/dieMwentnehmenSiederSeekarte.aspx [wassersport-akademie.org]
see third picture in the link.
(sorry for the german link, but the pictures should speek for themselves.)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday July 09 2014, @05:48PM
I also suspect having the magnetic field weakening in one area and strengthening in another has no net effect and is not something to get excited about. Changing pole position can often look like a reduction for some continents.
If a world wide reduction of 5% per decade were to continue to zero, life could get dicey on earth. But that hasn't happened in the entire earth's history.
The magnetic field has its ups and downs over history [windows2universe.org]. It occasionally flips north for south.
But its strength now is well within the average for 500K years.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @05:42PM
GPS determines position, not orientation, so you can't know which direction is north in a single reading. To determine orientation, the GPS receiver has to be moving so that successive position estimates can be used to deduce orientation. That's why some GPS receivers have electronic compasses in them (which measure the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field).
GPS will not replace a compass.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday July 09 2014, @05:56PM
You can also use a calibrated gyro.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday July 09 2014, @06:04PM
GPS can actually can be used as a compass but this requires special equipment, specifically highly selective differential antenna arrays.
These are commercially available but usually only use on ships.
Samples include
http://pro.simrad-yachting.com/en-US/Products/Compasses/HS70-GPS-Compass-en-us.aspx [simrad-yachting.com]
http://www.canalgeomatics.com/product_details.php?product_id=418 [canalgeomatics.com]
I suppose if the demand became apparent, this could be miniaturized for automotive use.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Foobar Bazbot on Wednesday July 09 2014, @07:13PM
Two things:
Note that much of GPS error varies slowly with both time and distance; this means that most of the error will be common-mode between two readings (either successive with one receiver, or simultaneous with two separated receivers); thus, even though one may have a position estimate that's only accurate to, say, 10m, the two receivers don't need to be separated by >> 10m as one might naively assume. I've never tried, nor deeply investigated this, but I suspect you could have adequate separation within a small car to get the accuracy required for those compass displays embedded in rear-view mirrors.
Anyway, in practice, the most common use-cases for a compass could be adequately filled by some combination of one or more GPS receivers and a multi-axis gyro to track rotations while not moving or not receiving good data.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday July 09 2014, @07:41PM
Inertial compasses will continue to work just fine. And IIRC they have already been shrunk to fit within a board, possibly within a chip.
And just consider how dubious magnetic compasses already are. Any large hunk of iron or steel will send them astray. They're OK wandering around in the woods, on in a wooden boat. Otherwise they aren't anything to rely on. Inertial compasses are much better, just a bit more complex.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday July 09 2014, @08:23PM
I donno man, a couple degrees an hour for some. Good enough for a RC helicopter tail gyro, but...
Given enough money you can get decent ones for aircraft, but still..
(Score: 5, Funny) by TK on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:59PM
So for the next thousand or so years the Earth will be awash with an extra dose of radiation, but not enough to cause a mass extinction.
Now's the time to invest in companies that build hardy grid infrastructure and/or provide cancer treatment.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 1) by Horse With Stripes on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:12PM
If you're in the market for some extra radiation shielding try looking at buy-your-custom-faraday-cages-for-your-house-online.net ;-)
(Score: 2) by egcagrac0 on Wednesday July 09 2014, @05:15PM
Maybe they'll start mixing lead into paint again. That ought to block out some of it.
(Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:17PM
I just can't wait to grow an extra arm!
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday July 09 2014, @09:13PM
Yes it would be very handy
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Thursday July 10 2014, @07:21AM
Two extra arms!
Then learn to play a duel neck guitar simultaneously,
Instant guitar god!!!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:35PM
Invest in SPF 100 sunblock mfgrs and eye cataract repair surgery suppliers. Not entirely kidding.
Also don't overlook the interesting VHF/UHF radio wave propagation effects of having (weak) continuous auroras over the entire planet down to the equator. (ask your local ham radio operator).
Things will get weird(er) for awhile before they get less weird.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @03:22PM
At least we should get some nice auroras.
(Score: 4, Funny) by SpallsHurgenson on Wednesday July 09 2014, @03:37PM
Has anyone checked to see if the core of the earth is still spinning?
I recommend the quick development of some sort of giant tunneling machine that can dig down beneath the surface of the earth and release five carefully placed nuclear bombs that - though their yield is improbably low for the task - will somehow jump-start the earth's magnetic field.
Also, all the engineers and scientists must be Hollywood-pretty.
I know this sounds a radical course of action, but the consequences could be dire if we do not act soon. Without a magnetic field, the sun would act like a blowtorch and fry the entire planet in seconds! I know this is true because I saw a documentary film about this a few years ago!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Buck Feta on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:44PM
First you, the scientist-expert with the wacky theory must convince President Morgan Freeman to act, however he is in the middle of an important political crisis and doesn't want to hear about it, however your beautiful side-kick and wannabe love interest will give you one crazy chance to prove your theory...
- fractious political commentary goes here -
(Score: 3, Funny) by DECbot on Wednesday July 09 2014, @06:53PM
Damn... conducting science sure has gotten harder since I was in school. You used to only have to have a sound, testable theory and the ability to convince the chemistry teacher that you're not bound to blow up the classroom.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 3, Funny) by Blackmoore on Wednesday July 09 2014, @07:05PM
OK, has anyone checked Bruce Willis's schedule? and who's going to produce this?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @08:03PM
Wrong direction.
See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298814/ [imdb.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by lennier on Wednesday July 09 2014, @10:41PM
Your research proposal intrigues me and I would like to subscribe to your evidence-based journal.
However to assure public calm, we will require you to "hack the planet". We are able to provide an unlimited supply of Hot Pockets and Xena tapes.
Delenda est Beta
(Score: 2) by nightsky30 on Wednesday July 09 2014, @09:58PM
All the magnetically inclined fauna are going to go insane!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @10:27PM
Somehow, this is Bush's fault.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Thursday July 10 2014, @07:26AM
No, it dates all the way back to Nixon, now we know what Watergate was really about! They saw the first signs and wanted to keep it secret until we discover Unobtaineum.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.