Why Is Geomagnetic Shield Weakening Over North America?
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09 November 2024
Chinese scientists have claimed that the magnetic shield over North America is weakening rapidly.
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Led by Professor Fang Hanxian of the National University of Defence Technology, the study has been published in Review of Geophysics and Planetary Physics.
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The shift of the geomagnetic poles from the western to the eastern hemisphere might be the possible reason for the loss of geomagnetic field.
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The findings showed that between 1930 to 1990, the field strength in North America increased and was higher than in many other regions of the world.
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However, over the last three decades, the magnetic field strength in the region had dropped to a level that is barely above the global average.
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Over the past century, the magnetic pole in the northern hemisphere had drifted eastward at a speed of about 10 km per year, the study highlighted.
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Earth's geomagnetic field, also called the magnetosphere, is a kind of natural barrier that protects the planet from harmful cosmic radiation.
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This cosmic radiation can cause erosion of our atmosphere through solar winds.
Image: NASA
This unwanted energy is trapped at a safe distance from the planet in a twin doughnut-shaped zones called the Van Allen Belts.