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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).
N g is geographic or true north, N m is magnetic north, and δ is magnetic declination. 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.
The Earth's magnetic north pole is drifting from northern Canada towards Siberia with a presently accelerating rate—10 kilometres (6.2 mi) per year at the beginning of the 1900s, up to 40 kilometres (25 mi) per year in 2003, [26] and since then has only accelerated. [51] [52]
Earth's magnetic field is what protects our planet from harmful space radiation. But our protective shield might soon go into a transformation that could threaten the lives on Earth.
On the one hand, this magnetic shield is responsible for life forming on Earth in the first place, as it protects the surface from most of the Sun’s harmful UV rays.
Like the North Magnetic Pole, the North Geomagnetic Pole attracts the north pole of a bar magnet and so is in a physical sense actually a magnetic south pole. It is the center of the 'open' magnetic field lines which connect to the interplanetary magnetic field and provide a direct route for the solar wind to reach the ionosphere.
The magnetic North Pole is sometimes confused with the geographic North Pole, but this spot stays at the same place as it is where all lines of longitude converge.
The direction of the field determines whether the pole is a magnetic north or south pole, exactly as on Earth. 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 ...