Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Earth’s magnetic north pole is on the move, and scientists just updated its position
The North Pole and the South Pole are set geographic poles and mark the axis around which the Earth rotates. The magnetic poles are the points where Earth's magnetic field lines are vertical. Unlike the geographic poles, the magnetic poles are not fixed and move due to changes in Earth's molten core and magnetic field dynamics. It has typically moved about 10 km per year or less over the last 400 years, but in 1990, it drifted over 50 km per year. Currently, the North Magnetic Pole is moving from Canada towards Russia, and the South Magnetic Pole is moving in the opposite direction. Even though the Global Positioning System (GPS) itself isn’t affected by the magnetic poles, most positioning systems also use compass-based navigation, and they are affected, including smartphones and car navigation systems. But don’t worry. While airlines and militaries need to upgrade the software to maintain the precision of their fleet, vehicles, and missiles, you can still use your phone without an update because the predicted magnetic points were incorporated into the system. Their spatial resolution isn’t as high as aircraft.
Read the article and learn about what magnetic poles are and how they affect our lives.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/21/science/magnetic-north-pole-new-position/index.html
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