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Magnetic declination (also called magnetic variation) is the angle between magnetic north and true north at a particular location on the Earth's surface. The angle can change over time due to polar wandering .
This image shows magnetic declination, or the angle between magnetic and geographic north, according to the World Magnetic Model released in 2025. Red is magnetic north to the east of geographic ...
Magnetic declination from true north in 2000. Historically, the magnetic compass was an important tool for navigation. While it has been widely replaced by Global Positioning Systems, many airplanes and ships still carry them, as do casual boaters and hikers. [28] The direction in which a compass needle points is known as magnetic north.
A typical procedure for measuring its direction is to use a compass to determine the direction of magnetic North. Its angle relative to true North is the declination (D) or variation. Facing magnetic North, the angle the field makes with the horizontal is the inclination (I) or magnetic dip.
In mid-December of 2024, scientists officially updated the World Magnetic Model (WMM), which helps keep track of our planet’s magnetic north and its chaotic and relatively unpredictable movements.
Magnetic dip causes the compass to dip upward or downward depending on the latitude. Illustration of magnetic dip from Norman's book, The Newe Attractive. Magnetic dip, dip angle, or magnetic inclination is the angle made with the horizontal by Earth's magnetic field lines. This angle varies at different points on Earth's surface.
The first is magnetic declination or variation—the angular difference between magnetic North (the local direction of the Earth's magnetic field) and true North. [1] The second is magnetic deviation —the angular difference between magnetic North and the compass needle due to nearby sources of interference such as magnetically permeable ...
Magnetic declination map at sea-level for the year 2010 derived from WMM2010. The World Magnetic Model ( WMM ) is a large spatial-scale representation of the Earth's magnetic field. It was developed jointly by the US National Geophysical Data Center and the British Geological Survey .