Within the last five years magnetic north has undergone “the biggest deceleration in speed we’ve ever seen”. The World Magnetic Model 2025 has just been released. Coincidentally, or not, NASA thinks the South Atlantic Anomaly is up to something, and may be in the process of splitting in two.
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Since the magnetic poles are constantly moving, albeit very slowly, the NOAA and the British Geological Survey (BGS) have to regularly revise their models, says IFL Science.
On December 17, they released the latest update, including the new World Magnetic Model High Resolution (WMMHR2025). WMMHR2025 offers a significant improvement in spatial resolution – approximately 300 kilometers (186 miles) at the equator – compared to the standard model’s resolution of 3,300 kilometers (2,050 miles) at the equator.
The update is extremely important for technology that relies on the Earth’s magnetic field, namely the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other satellite-based navigation systems used elsewhere in the world.
The new version is of timely importance too as the magnetic north pole’s movement seems to be accelerating. [Talkshop comment – or was?]
Since the 1830s, the north magnetic pole of Earth has relocated some 2,250 kilometers (1,400 miles) across the upper stretches of the Northern Hemisphere from Canada towards Siberia. Between 1990 and 2005, the rate of pole movement increased from less than 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) per year to around 50 to 60 kilometers (31 to 37 miles) per year.
“The WMM is officially released today*, ensuring users can have the most up-to-date information so they can continue to navigate accurately for the next five years,” Dr William Brown, global geomagnetic field modeler at BGS, said in a statement. [*Dated 17 December]
“The current behaviour of magnetic north is something that we have never observed before. Magnetic north has been moving slowly around Canada since the 1500s but, in the past 20 years, it accelerated towards Siberia, increasing in speed every year until about five years ago, when it suddenly decelerated from 50 to 35 km per year, which is the biggest deceleration in speed we’ve ever seen,” added Dr Brown.
Full article here.
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Image: World Magnetic Model 2025 [credit: NOAA]
via Tallbloke’s Talkshop
December 29, 2024 at 02:07PM
Iowa Climate Science Education 