Early Update of Earth’s Magnetic Model Marks Quick Changes

by Jordanna Sheermohamed of Weather Forecast Solutions

Recent news headlines have taken liberties in reporting about the shift in the Earth’s magnetic poles and the bumped up deadline to update the world magnetic model by a year. The regularly 5-year scheduled update was been realigned to compensate for the increase in speed at which magnetic north is currently shifting. This movement is considered normal as magnetic north has been wandering since it was first discovered in the 1800s, but the speed of the current migration has caught the eye of scientists, who have recognized the movement has been increasing since the early 2000’s.

Understanding the impacts this has on maritime industry is important as compass navigation remains an important tool for mariners. We’ve come to depend on the location of the magnetic north pole as a compass is designed to align to magnetic north. While GPS utilizes satellites for positioning, the accuracy of such position as well as the direction one is facing is dependent on the magnetic field.

While most regions around the world will not see significant impacts of a magnetic shift, locations in and around the Arctic and Antarctic regions are where these differences are the most measurable. According to John Flanagan and Dan Dale of Maritime Professional Training, “frequency/high frequency (MF/HF) radios are particularly utilized where satellite coverage is spotty or nonexistent. These devices are affected by magnetism and their effectiveness could be hampered if the shift in the magnetic poles continues to increase at a high rate.”

The natural and alternating location of the magnetic pole shifts is a response to molten iron, slushing around within the interiors of the Earth. This is known as a magnetic reversal and has occurred many times during Earth’s history. Analyses of rocks that contain magnetic particles along the ocean floor can be observed in a striped pattern that align with the magnetic poles. The striped pattern has also migrated, providing both the qualitative and quantitative proof that the magnetic poles have shifted several times.
 

Outside of human navigation, several animal species depend on the location and strength of Earth’s magnetic field for navigation. An interference in their navigational dependency could induce unintentional changes in migratory patterns, which in turn can have ecological consequences.

Anyone who has witnessed an aurora or those who wish to check this off their bucket list would be interested to know that the location of where these atmospheric phenomenon occur is highly dependent on the location of the earth’s magnetic field. The intensity of the magnetic field acts as a protective shield around the earth, guarding against harmful cosmic rays originating outside the solar system and ionized particles known as plasma emitted from the sun via the solar wind. These particles are safely directed around the Earth and further into outer space, protecting our atmosphere from being eroded by this radiation. Some of these ionized particles become magnetically attracted to the Earth’s magnetic poles, becoming the beautiful auroras that are observed in the high latitudes of both the North and South poles. An exceptionally strong solar event allows for these ionized particles to travel further away from the polar latitudes towards the mid-latitudes, allowing the possibility of auroras to occur in the mid-latitudes.

Magnetic field shifts and pole reversals have happened numerous times in Earth’s history without any apocalyptic outcomes. While there is no “normal” when it comes to our dynamic Earth, future magnetic pole shifts won’t lead to impending doom but will require industry specific adaptive strategies and possibly a vacation to finally see an aurora.