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Earth's Magnetic Field Is Acting Up and Geologists Don't Know Why (nature.com)
schwit1 quotes Nature:
Something strange is going on at the top of the world. Earth's north magnetic pole has been skittering away from Canada and towards Siberia, driven by liquid iron sloshing within the planet's core. The magnetic pole is moving so quickly that it has forced the world's geomagnetism experts into a rare move. [T]hey are set to update the World Magnetic Model, which describes the planet's magnetic field and underlies all modern navigation, from the systems that steer ships at sea to Google Maps on smartphones. The most recent version of the model came out in 2015 and was supposed to last until 2020 -- but the magnetic field is changing so rapidly that researchers have to fix the model now.
"The error is increasing all the time," says Arnaud Chulliat, a geomagnetist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) National Centers for Environmental Information.... By early 2018, the World Magnetic Model was in trouble. Researchers from NOAA and the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh had been doing their annual check of how well the model was capturing all the variations in Earth's magnetic field. They realized that it was so inaccurate that it was about to exceed the acceptable limit for navigational errors.
Nature's article was updated on January 9th to inform readers that the release of the corrected World Magnetic Model, which should restore accuracy through the end of 2019, has now been postponed from January 15th to January 30th -- "due to the ongoing US government shutdown."
"The error is increasing all the time," says Arnaud Chulliat, a geomagnetist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) National Centers for Environmental Information.... By early 2018, the World Magnetic Model was in trouble. Researchers from NOAA and the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh had been doing their annual check of how well the model was capturing all the variations in Earth's magnetic field. They realized that it was so inaccurate that it was about to exceed the acceptable limit for navigational errors.
Nature's article was updated on January 9th to inform readers that the release of the corrected World Magnetic Model, which should restore accuracy through the end of 2019, has now been postponed from January 15th to January 30th -- "due to the ongoing US government shutdown."
Declination needs to be changed every year by serious navigators. More often near the poles. This has been true since before any slashdot reader was born.
The magnetic shift is increasing in complexity and rate of change. This has also been known for a very long time.
We are overdue for a pole shift given our current understanding of the magnetosphere. We might be lucky enough to witness multiple north and south poles, followed by a rapid reversal where every magnetic compass in the world will point the wrong way.
Earth's north magnetic pole has been skittering away from Canada and towards Siberia,
Russian interference again, no doubt.
what matters is how everyone else measures...
For example, in Sydney there is a 200 metres (700 feet) difference between GPS coordinates configured in GDA (based on global standard WGS 84) and AGD (used for most local maps), which is an unacceptably large error for some applications, such as surveying or site location for scuba diving
see : https://www.icsm.gov.au/datum/what-gda2020
Why does it have to be the U.S. government's job to produce a "World Magnetic Model"? If boats might collide, would it not be better for them to rely on more than one source for this information? This article was politically motivated. When I first saw this article appear, the page was also littered with climate change propaganda.
Why does Paris have to be responsible for defining the kilogram? NOAA puts out a model for US government and commercial use. The information is so useful that other countries have adopted it for their government and commercial use, also. Now the model is not being published because a big baby isn't getting money for a wall that he said would come from Mexico to begin with. Did you know that NOAA is also responsible for 99.999999% of the weather forecast data that is used by private business? And that the CDC helps manage food and water borne illness through the globe and not just in the US? All of those activities are of use to the world and publishing this information helps to improve business and commerce for US companies.
Could someone else publish this model? I am certain it is possible. But sometimes the prestige involved in having that come from your specific country is useful. I think it would be worthwhile for the US to continue to be the source of such useful scientific and commercial knowledge. Are you saying that we should let our position in this slide because of a border wall that nobody really needs? I mean, you are aware that over half of the illegal immigration that occurs these days is by airplane and people overstaying visas, right? My understanding is that the wall will not be high enough to prevent immigrants from coming over by air.