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Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun.
As a first-order approximation, the Earth's magnetic field can be modeled as a simple dipole (like a bar magnet), tilted about 9.6° with respect to the Earth's rotation axis (which defines the Geographic North and Geographic South Poles) and centered at the Earth's center. [5]
The Earth's magnetic axis is approximately aligned with its rotational axis, meaning that the geomagnetic poles are relatively close to the geographic poles. However, this is not necessarily the case for other planets; the magnetic axis of Uranus, for example, is inclined by as much as 60°.
Earth’s magnetic field has behaved even more dramatically in the past, with the magnetosphere weakening so much that its polarity reversed. This flips the magnetic north and south poles, and the ...
The north magnetic pole, also known as the magnetic north pole, is a point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the planet's magnetic field points vertically downward (in other words, if a magnetic compass needle is allowed to rotate in three dimensions, it will point straight down).
It was once believed that the dipole, which comprises much of the Earth's magnetic field and is misaligned along the rotation axis by 11.3 degrees, was caused by permanent magnetization of the materials in the earth. This means that dynamo theory was originally used to explain the Sun's magnetic field in its relationship with that of the Earth.
Relative to Earth's surface, the geographic poles move by a few metres over periods of a few years. [3] This is a combination of Chandler wobble , a free oscillation with a period of about 433 days; an annual motion responding to seasonal movements of air and water masses; and an irregular drift towards the 80th west meridian . [ 4 ]
The south magnetic pole, also known as the magnetic south pole, is the point on Earth's Southern Hemisphere where the geomagnetic field lines are directed perpendicular to the nominal surface. The Geomagnetic South Pole, a related point, is the south pole of an ideal dipole model of the Earth's magnetic field that most closely fits the Earth's ...