ah ::) is it a pole flip.. or just normal movement .. ? .is it what is messing with everything that is going on.. or just another day in the atomsphere..?
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27941557
Swarm mission makes magnetic maps
By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News
20 June 2014 Last updated at 07:04 ET
(http://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/13/55/53/83/_7566910.jpg)
A field snapshot in June. Reds are strong; blues are weak. The view is dominated by the core contribution.
Europe's Swarm space mission has begun making maps of Earth's magnetic field.
Data just released shows how the field generated in the planet's liquid outer core varies in strength over the course of a few months.
Swarm's early assessment appears to support the prevailing view that this magnetic cloak in general is weakening.
Many experts believe it heralds a flip in the poles, where north becomes south and vice versa, although it would take thousands of years to complete.
The European Space Agency's Swarm mission was launched last November.
It comprises three satellites that are equipped with a variety of instruments - the key ones being state-of-the-art magnetometers that measure field strength and direction.
They fly in a configuration that offsets one platform from the other two.
The intention is that this should provide a three-dimensional view of the field, and make it easier to tease apart its various components.
In the release this week from Esa, we get a view that is dominated by the contribution (95%) from the core. But eventually, Swarm will have the sensitivity to describe magnetism from other, more subtle sources, including that generated by the movement of our salt-water oceans.
(http://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/13/55/53/83/_7567010.jpg)
Change in the field since January. Reds are a strengthening; blues are a weakening.
The maps on this page use the magnetic unit of a nanoTesla. Earth's field typically has a full strength of some 50,000nT.
The maps illustrate a snapshot (in June) and the change that occurs through time (January to June). In the latter, field strength is seen to drop over the western hemisphere but rise in other areas, such as the southern Indian Ocean.
Earth's magnetic field is worthy of study because it is the vital shield that protects the planet from all the charged particles streaming off the Sun.
Without it, those particles would strip away the atmosphere, just as they have done at Mars.
Investigating the magnetic field also has direct practical benefits, such as improving the reliability of satellite navigation systems which can be affected by magnetic and electrical conditions high in the atmosphere.
"I started my career in magnetometry and the accuracy we had then in the laboratories was less than what we can fly in space now," explained Prof Volker Liebig, the director of Earth observation at Esa.
"So what we have on Swarm is fantastic, but we need long time series to understand fully the Earth's magnetic field, and we will get that from this mission," he told BBC News.
(http://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/13/55/53/83/_7460710.jpg)
The Swarm fly high above the Earth in a configuration that offsets one satellite from a pair of spacecraft.
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I have a problem with this statement from above, , , think of Venus.
"Earth's magnetic field is worthy of study because it is the vital shield that protects the planet from all the charged particles streaming off the Sun.
Without it, those particles would strip away the atmosphere, just as they have done at Mars."
Here is the puzzler, , , , , , 8)
"In 1967, Venera 4 found the Venusian magnetic field to be much weaker than that of Earth. "
Quote from: Norval on June 20, 2014, 03:56:15 PM
I have a problem with this statement from above, , , think of Venus.
"Earth's magnetic field is worthy of study because it is the vital shield that protects the planet from all the charged particles streaming off the Sun.
Without it, those particles would strip away the atmosphere, just as they have done at Mars."
Journalists... ::)
This is the ESA article about it.
Quote19 June 2014
The first set of high-resolution results from ESA's three-satellite Swarm constellation reveals the most recent changes in the magnetic field that protects our planet.
Launched in November 2013, Swarm is providing unprecedented insights into the complex workings of Earth's magnetic field, which safeguards us from the bombarding cosmic radiation and charged particles.
Measurements made over the past six months confirm the general trend of the field's weakening, with the most dramatic declines over the Western Hemisphere.
But in other areas, such as the southern Indian Ocean, the magnetic field has strengthened since January.
The latest measurements also confirm the movement of magnetic North towards Siberia.
These changes are based on the magnetic signals stemming from Earth's core. Over the coming months, scientists will analyse the data to unravel the magnetic contributions from other sources, namely the mantle, crust, oceans, ionosphere and magnetosphere.
This will provide new insight into many natural processes, from those occurring deep inside our planet to space weather triggered by solar activity. In turn, this information will yield a better understanding of why the magnetic field is weakening.
"These initial results demonstrate the excellent performance of Swarm," said Rune Floberghagen, ESA's Swarm Mission Manager.
"With unprecedented resolution, the data also exhibit Swarm's capability to map fine-scale features of the magnetic field."
The first results were presented today at the 'Third Swarm Science Meeting' in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Sofie Carsten Nielsen, Danish Minister of Higher Education and Science, highlighted the Danish contribution to the mission. Swarm continues the legacy of the Danish Ørsted satellite, which is still operational, as well as the German Champ mission. Swarm's core instrument – the Vector Field Magnetometer – was provided by the Technical University of Denmark.
Denmark's National Space Institute, DTU Space, has a leading role – together with 10 European and Canadian research institutes – in the Swarm Satellite Constellation Application and Research Facility, which produces advanced models based on Swarm data describing each of the various sources of the measured field.
"I'm extremely happy to see that Swarm has materialised," said Kristian Pedersen, Director of DTU Space.
Source (http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Swarm/Swarm_reveals_Earth_s_changing_magnetism)