Slashdot Mirror
As Magnetic North Pole Zooms Toward Siberia, Scientists Update World Magnetic Model (npr.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Earth's geographic north pole is fixed. But the planet's magnetic north pole -- the north that your compass points toward -- wanders in the direction of Siberia at a rate of more than 34 miles per year. That movement may seem slow, but it has forced scientists to update their model of Earth's magnetic field a year earlier than expected so that navigational services, including map-based phone apps, continue to work accurately. The drift results from processes taking place at the center of the planet. Molten iron and nickel slosh and spin in the planet's core, essentially serving as a metallic conductor for Earth's magnetic field. Changes in that fluid flow lead to changes in the magnetic field. As a result of those changes, the accuracy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's World Magnetic Model (WMM) -- a mathematical representation of the magnetic field -- slowly deteriorates in the five-year periods between updates. The next update was due in 2020. But "unplanned variations" have degraded the quality of the WMM so greatly that NOAA published an out-of-cycle update Monday. It was delayed from January by the partial government shutdown.
spin axis of earth drifts too, about 10 cm a year, caused by events that redistribute the earth's mass.
That same runway in the opposite direction is 30.
I hope you aren't a pilot. The opposite end of runway 20 is runway 2.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
Close, its runway 02 in aviation speak.
Only Norway has any significant amount of oil of the three Nordic countries.
The Spanish Inquisition:
Our three Nordic countries are Norway, Sweden and Finland . . . and Denmark. Our four Nordic countries are Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark . . . and Iceland. Our five Nordic countries are Nordic countries are Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland . . . and Greenland.
Oh, bugger. Among our Nordic countries . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
First they steal Ukraine. Then they steal our election. Now they steal the North Pole!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
The truth is, there is NOTHING at the center of the Earth, because the Earth is hollow. I mean, I saw about it on the Internet and if it's on the Internet, it has to be true!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
That depends where you are. Merkins don't seem to bother with the leading zero, whereas here in Yurp we definitely do. Something about our socialist paradise creating jobs for paint-makers and number-painters, I think. ;)