{"id":219398,"date":"2025-10-17T09:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/219398\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T09:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:04:07","slug":"something-weird-is-happening-to-earths-magnetic-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/219398\/","title":{"rendered":"Something Weird Is Happening to Earth\u2019s Magnetic Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

The weak spot in Earth\u2019s magnetic field, a region over the South Atlantic where the field\u2019s strength is significantly reduced compared to its surrounding area, has grown by an area nearly the size of the European continent over the past 11 years.<\/p>\n

Using data from the European Space Agency\u2019s (ESA) Swarm satellites, scientists revealed that the South Atlantic Anomaly has gotten much larger since 2014. In a recent study<\/a> published in Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, the team of scientists links the development to strange patterns at the boundary between Earth\u2019s liquid layer, which lies above the solid inner core, and its rocky mantle, the layer between the crust and the outer core.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe South Atlantic Anomaly is not just a single block,\u201d Chris Finlay, professor of geomagnetism at the Technical University of Denmark and lead author of the study, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s something special happening in this region that is causing the field to weaken in a more intense way.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the spot <\/p>\n

Earth\u2019s magnetic field is essential to life on our planet<\/a>. It protects Earth from cosmic radiation and acts as a shield against solar wind, keeping our atmosphere stable and preventing liquid water and other gases from being eroded by the stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun.<\/p>\n

Scientists first identified the South Atlantic Anomaly, better known as the weak spot, in the late 1950s, when the first satellites began measuring Earth\u2019s magnetic field. Early observations revealed that radiation levels were unusually high over one particular area over the South Atlantic, which meant that the magnetic field was weaker there compared to surrounding regions.<\/p>\n

\"SouthSwarm\u2019s magnetic field measurements reveal changes in the weak spot. Credit: ESA <\/p>\n

Satellites passing over the region experience higher doses of radiation compared to other areas, which makes studying the anomaly a crucial part of maintaining the safety of space missions, according to ESA.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally we\u2019d expect to see magnetic field lines coming out of the core in the southern hemisphere,\u201d Finlay said. \u201cBut beneath the South Atlantic Anomaly we see unexpected areas where the magnetic field, instead of coming out of the core, goes back into the core.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Swarm data revealed that one of these areas is moving westward over Africa, which is contributing to the weakening of the South Atlantic Anomaly in this region. The data also highlights two points in the northern hemisphere where Earth\u2019s magnetic field is particularly strong, one around Canada and the other around Siberia, that have experienced varying results since Swarm began its observations.<\/p>\n

The strong spot around Canada has weakened, shrinking by 0.65% of Earth\u2019s surface area, which is almost the size of India. On the other hand, the Siberian strong region has grown by 0.42% of Earth\u2019s surface area, or about the size of Greenland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to understand Earth\u2019s magnetic field, it\u2019s important to remember that it\u2019s not just a simple dipole, like a bar magnet,\u201d Finlay said. \u201cIt\u2019s only by having satellites like Swarm that we can fully map this structure and see it changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESA\u2019s Swarm satellite constellation launched in 2013 to study the complexities of the magnetic field. The mission uses three satellites, named Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, to measure magnetic signals originating from Earth\u2019s core, as well as the planet\u2019s crust, oceans, and parts of its atmosphere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The weak spot in Earth\u2019s magnetic field, a region over the South Atlantic where the field\u2019s strength is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,11029,10323,17274,66,306],"class_list":{"0":"post-219398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-esa","11":"tag-magnetic-field","12":"tag-satellites","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}