
Swarm satellites probe weakening of Earth’s magnetic field - throw0101a
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Swarm/Swarm_probes_weakening_of_Earth_s_magnetic_field
======
trail-system
"Over the last 200 years, the magnetic field has lost around 9% of its
strength on a global average. A large region of reduced magnetic intensity has
developed between Africa and South America and is known as the South Atlantic
Anomaly."

The South Atlantic Anomaly is interesting. In past years satellites are being
made to shutdown while passing the regions to avoid damage from the lack of
protection from harmful particles.

~~~
tboerstad
Fascinating information, today I learned. Out of curiosity, do you work in the
industry?

~~~
JshWright
I'm not the commenter you're repling to, but personally I think I originally
learned about the SAA from a Scott Manley video.

~~~
iso947
I suspect this one, explaining the various parts of mission control

[https://youtu.be/6zFAme3SQAo](https://youtu.be/6zFAme3SQAo)

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politelemon
> It has been speculated whether the current weakening of the field is a sign
> that Earth is heading for an eminent pole reversal

It's not often mentioned but these pole reversals aren't sudden/instantaneous
across the planet. They can take a few thousand years to complete.

See:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal)

The most interesting part to me, from the Wikipedia page is:

> The magnetic field will not vanish completely, but many poles might form
> chaotically in different places during reversal, until it stabilizes again.

~~~
BurningFrog
It's seriously discussed to give Mars a "protective" magnetic field like Earth
has, by putting a powerful magnet in the L1 Lagrange Point.

We could get something like that for Earth if our field is out for maintenance
for a while.

[https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/245369-nasa-proposes-
bui...](https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/245369-nasa-proposes-building-
artificial-magnetic-field-restore-mars-atmosphere)

~~~
masnao
we can't coordinate basic health care communication on an emergency. Let's
hope someone finds a way to place Advertising on those big magnets in case we
came to need them.

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furins
Geologist here: no. Geomagnetic field reversed thousands of times in the
Phanerozoic (last 650 My) without any relation with mass extinction events.
Organisms can deal with this kind of events.

~~~
dmos62
More info? According to Wikipedia, the Phanerozoic Eon has been lasting for
541 million years (I rechecked because wasn't sure what My meant at first).
How would we even detect extinction events from a few million years back?
Also, hundreds of millions years divided by thousands of geomagnetic field
reversals sounds like very rare (considering the briefness of human
existance). Also, ecosystem collapses are probably not all the same: there's
gigantic explosions (a la dinosaur killer), there could be ocean acidifaction,
etc.

~~~
DataGata
There are a lot of good pop science books to read about the history of life on
earth.

"The Ends of the World" is probably the best one. "The Rise and Fall of the
Dinosaurs" is also a good one, and it doesn't focus purely on the dinosaurs as
the title suggests, but about how we know how they evolved and existed.

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akuchling
Alanna Mitchell's "The Spinning Magnet" is a good popular-level book on the
Earth's magnetic field, how it was discovered and investigated, and what's
currently known about it:
[https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781101985168](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781101985168)

Space-based X-ray telescopes also need to take the South Atlantic Anomaly into
account; data taken while the instrument is in the SAA is disregarded.

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alex_duf
Am I correct this potentially weaken our shielding against charged particles
coming from the Sun?

And if so, is it opening the possibility of having northern lights in the
middle of the Atlantic?

~~~
trail-system
From NOAA
([https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/aurora](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/aurora))

When space weather activity increases and more frequent and larger storms and
substorms occur, the aurora extends equatorward. During large events, the
aurora can be observed as far south as the US, Europe, and Asia. During very
large events, the aurora can be observed even farther from the poles.

~~~
simias
That's a very weird and not very precise way to word this. Of course I would
expect auroras to be regularly visible in the far northern parts of the USA
and Europe:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aurora_Kp_Map_North_Ameri...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aurora_Kp_Map_North_America.gif)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aurora_Kp_Map_Eurasia.gif](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aurora_Kp_Map_Eurasia.gif)

Now if you start seeing Auroras in Lisbon or Miami please let me know!

~~~
iso947
Auroras were seen in Baltimore and Perth (Australia) during the Carrington
event in 1859, around Lisbon’s latitude (both north and south)

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erwinh
Interesting project!

Although the name Swarm conjures up a large number of satellites it is
actually only 3 that make up the constellation:

[https://space-search.io/?search=swarm](https://space-search.io/?search=swarm)

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angel_j
What is that satellite's probe doing to the magnetic field?

~~~
bArray
Haha this is how I first read the title. It should probably read: "Swarm
satellites probe the Earth’s weakening magnetic field".

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edna314
Should be possible to estimate how long it would take to hypothetically spread
over the whole globe (this probably won't happen). Any idea what time scales
we are talking about here? My best guess based on the animation would be ~50
years rather than hundreds of years, but would be nice to have a solid
estimate rather than guessing.

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itchyjunk
Could this time of field weakening and events such as cambrian explosion[0] be
related?

Does any human activity impact Earth's magnetic field directly or is it
irrelevant at this scale? Activity like mining metals out of the planet, large
amounts of construction. Movement of metal in ways of air planes and vehicles.

If molten magma is the source of our magnetic field and the earth slowly spews
out lava over time, is it causing out magnetic field to weaken over time?

This might be slightly offtopic but what do you make of the concept that
magnetic fields and global warming might be associated? [1]

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion)

[1]
[https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006AGUFMGP51B..02F/abstra...](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006AGUFMGP51B..02F/abstract)

~~~
Hendrikto
> Activity like mining metals out of the planet, large amounts of
> construction. Movement of metal in ways of air planes and vehicles.

That is ENTIRELY insignificant, and not even worth mentioning. The deepest
hole humans have ever been able to create was about 12km deep. That is less
than 0.18% of the earth‘s radius.

Human activity is limited to the upper parts of earth‘s crust, which is itself
only a fraction of earth. Magnetism happens WAAAAAY deeper.

~~~
weinzierl
_" The deepest hole humans have ever been able to create was about 12km
deep."_

This interesting: We've sent humans 384400 km away from our planet, we've sent
an object more than 22E9 km away [1], yet we cannot drill a hole deeper than
12 km into our own planet.

[1]
[http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status](http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status)

~~~
DoingIsLearning
You hit a temperature/pressure threshold pretty quickly once you start going
down.

It's hard to engineer materials or machinery that can cope with the kind of
pressures and temperatures created when drilling deeper than a few kilometres.

Also pouring government funds into something like this is not as glamourous as
manned space flight missions. A good example is that we know more about the
surface of the Moon than we know about the ecosystems in the Mariana trench.

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blickentwapft
>> At surface level, the South Atlantic Anomaly presents no cause for alarm.

I still feel an irrational sense of alarm.

~~~
koonsolo
Yes, especially during these corona times... "We are not prepared!!!" ;).

~~~
outworlder
Wait until the anomaly is combined with a ... Coronal mass ejection!

:)

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ibigb
Interestingly the first person to talk about pole reversals was the American
holistic healer Edgar Cayce. On the 11th day of August, 1936: Q What great
change or the beginning of what change, if any, is to take place in the earth
in the year 2,000 to 2,001 A.D.? (A) When there is a shifting of the poles. Or
a new cycle begins. Ref [826-8]

Geologist of the time did not believe a word of it. However, during WW2 the
detecting instrumentation for submarine warfare detected on the sea floor
alternating bands of magnetic polarization, which is now evidence for the
reversal of the magnetic poles. Humans do have non-physical experiences, e.g.
dreams, etc. but now most non-physical experience is discounted, ignored,
except for thinking.

~~~
burkaman
> the first person to talk about pole reversals was the American holistic
> healer Edgar Cayce. On the 11th day of August, 1936

Geophysicist Motonori Matuyama talked about geomagnetic reversals in the
1920s:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motonori_Matuyama](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motonori_Matuyama)

> When there is a shifting of the poles. Or a new cycle begins.

He actually is not talking about magnetic poles. He clarifies further:

"There will be shifting then of the poles – so that where there has been those
of a frigid or the semi-tropical will become the more tropical, and moss and
fern will grow. And these will begin in those periods in ‘58 to ‘98, when
these will be proclaimed as the periods when His light will be seen again in
the clouds. As to times, as to seasons, as to places, alone is it given to
those who have named the name – and who bear the mark of those of His calling
and His election in their bodies. To them it shall be given." \-
[https://www.edgarcayce.org/about-us/blog/blog-
posts/cayces-p...](https://www.edgarcayce.org/about-us/blog/blog-posts/cayces-
pole-shift-prediction-speeds-up/)

> Geologist of the time did not believe a word of it.

I mean, did anybody ask them? Perhaps they would have been familiar with
Professor Matuyama's work.

Finally, how many other predictions did he make? Any chance people have
cherry-picked a couple of his ideas that seem kind of close to right?

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zmkzrk
I'd recommmend Sunfall by British physicist Jim Al-Khalili as an entertaining
fictional account of the catastrophic effects of an weakening in the Earth's
magnetic field, followed by attempts to remotely restart flow activity in the
core.

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kylek
NOAA has a map showing historical data of the pole movements -

[https://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/historical_declination/](https://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/historical_declination/)

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jl6
Since Earth’s magnetic field derives from the convection currents of magma in
the outer core, and since moving magma also drives tectonic activity... is
there any potential relationship between this anomaly and
earthquakes/volcanos?

~~~
snowwrestler
The magnetic field is generated in the outer core, while surface vulcanism and
earthquakes are driven by the upper mantle. These areas are about 2,000 miles
different in depth. There's obviously some kind of relationship because it's
all one planet, but nothing direct enough to care about in this situation.

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mike_ivanov
"Sorry to disappoint the "we're all going to die" crowd, but the South
Atlantic Anomaly has been developing at least since 1840, and appears to be an
effect of long-term, mysterious flows in Earth's outer core."

[https://twitter.com/coreyspowell/status/1264999851655335936](https://twitter.com/coreyspowell/status/1264999851655335936)

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gadjo95
Is it dangerous for human ? I'm thinking like the ozone hole we used to have
in South America in the past.

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praveen9920
Speculation : These anamolies somehow related to strange Bermuda Triangle
events?

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shirak_untel
Maybe this means it's time for the magnetic pole to flip? Damn, I'd like to
see this in my lifetime

~~~
mirekrusin
Does anybody know if flipping, earth being without strong/stable magnetic
field for decades/centuries could have been cause of dinosaur extinction?

~~~
pp19dd
There was a 2013 paper titled "Mass Extinction and the Structure of the Milky
Way" that you might find interesting:
[https://arxiv.org/abs/1309.4838](https://arxiv.org/abs/1309.4838) \- I don't
know if there have been any significant follow ups since it published.

Basically our galaxy is a spiral galaxy with four arms, and it's rotating. The
center moves slower than the outside, and our sun's orbit is near the inner
rim of the Orion arm. We orbit the galaxy roughly every 240 million years and
in that time we cross the dense galactic arms every so often (arms aren't
symmetrical).

The paper: "A correlation was found between the times at which the Sun crosses
the spiral arms and six known mass extinction events."

~~~
throwanem
Yeah, and they only had to design an entirely novel and significantly
asymmetrical model for the shape of the Milky Way Galaxy to do it.

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kburman
[deleted]

Edit: I shouldn't have posted it.

~~~
crispyporkbites
All magnets will fail to work so most trains won't run anymore and you'll have
to use SSDs or tape storage for your computer.

GPS systems will no longer work and Google Maps will spin around constantly.

Only babies (and crows) will need to live underground for the first 6 months
of their lives to ensure they don't develop vertico.

~~~
catalogia
> All magnets will fail to work

I'm not sure what you responded to since it was removed, but I assume it was
something to do with the subject of the article...

Why would all magnets cease to work if the Earth's magnetic field went funky?
Surely neither the magnets on my fridge nor the magnets in a train's electric
traction motors do not depend on the earth's magnetic field being oriented any
particular direction. I'm not sure, but I think AC train traction motors don't
even have permanent magnets in them. Compasses would get messed up though.

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bullen
I have this theory that the hydrocarbons (which are just dead trees) are
slowly feeding the magma in the earth when the tectonic plates move.

If that's true (although I don't get how that fire burns without oxygen) then
our use of coal, oil and gas will eventually have serious effects?

~~~
Loughla
I. I just honestly don't understand what you're saying. Or where you would've
come up with that. Or what the purpose would be. Or why you even think this
exists.

What are you possibly basing this on?

~~~
foobarian
Remember, in the 1800s people thought the Sun was burning coal.

~~~
NikolaeVarius
How dare people try and use existing knowledge to formulate a hypothesis about
something that was unknown.

Parent post is just wrong since we know how those processes work

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acd
By looking at the video it looks like an anomaly in the Amazonas. What is
causing this? Deforestation?

If so we need to change economic system to one based on nature. So that eco
systems have an economic value. Ie a tree in Amazonas has a value to earth and
its inhabitants since it provides oxygen. In current market economic system
common resources are not priced fully. It may be profitable to chop down tree
and sell the wood. Use previous Amazonas land for example to create more
farmland to breed cows.

~~~
mportela
The center is actually more to the south. It seems to be over Paraguay and
southern Brazil, thousands of kilometers away from the Amazon rainforest.

"What is causing this?"

Well... that's exactly the point, right? No one knows what's causing it.

