Satellite Swarm Spots North Pole Drift

An anonymous reader writes "A report from the European Space Agency shows the first collection of high-resolution results from the agency's three-satellite Swarm. The report illustrates the latest changes in the Earth's magnetic field and shows the movement of the magnetic North Pole. "Launched in November 2013, ESA's Swarm mission consists of three 9-meter satellites orbiting the planet at altitudes of 300-530 km (186-330 miles). Their goal is to monitor Earth's dynamic magnetic field, observing its changes over a period of four years. The data gathered by the Swarm satellites will help scientists better understand how our magnetic field works, how it's influenced by solar activity, and why large parts of it are found to be weakening.""

Re:Global warming...

[Penguinisto]

Political joke = butthurt, apparently.

Tough crowd.

Re:Magnetic poles reversal coming soon?

[Bengie]

It won't completely disappear. Instead of all of the flux lines being aligned and creating one large field, there will be flux lines protruding from many different directions and have lots of smaller fields. A Discovery Channel show from many years back claimed something like an estimated 10% increase rate of cancer world wide. Doesn't sound too bad. We'll also lose a bit more upper atmosphere than normal.

On the flip side, we'll get some really cool Auroras visible to almost anywhere in the world!