Geophysicists from Europe analyzed the global changes in the Earth's magnetic field over the past 15 years and found a weakening of the magnetic field in the United States. This was done using three Swarm satellites. The study of scientists is reported by ESA (European Space Agency).
The first animation, presented by geophysicists, shows the change in the planet's geomagnetic field from 1999 to 2016. Blue shows areas of weak field, red - strong. For this animation, data from the CHAMP and Ørsted satellites were also used.
The video shows that during the noted period, the field weakened by about 3.5 percent in high latitudes over the territories of North America (USA and Canada) and became 2 percent stronger over the territories of Asia. The region with the weakest magnetic field is observed over the Atlantic, has shifted to the west, and the magnetic field has weakened in it by 2 percent (over the noted observation period). The magnetic north pole is, as expected, migrating eastward.
The second animation presented by ESA shows the regions where the change in the magnetic field was observed stronger and weaker in the period 2000-2015. In the video, areas with high rates of magnetic field change are marked in blue, and areas with low rates of change in red. For example, the magnetic field changed slowly in South Africa and rapidly in Asia.
Photo: ATG Medialab / ESA
The Earth's magnetic field is produced by currents in the metal core inside the planet. The most important characteristic of the magnetic field is its intensity, the magnitude of which varies slightly for different territories of the planet. The Earth's magnetic poles differ from geographic ones and change their position over time. Predicting these processes is important for understanding the nature of geomagnetism.