A schematic of the Earth under the influence of the solar wind.
Using data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Swarm satellite, scientists have found that charged particles blown into Earth’s atmosphere by the solar wind fall toward the geomagnetic north pole in greater numbers than the geomagnetic south pole.
The sun is throwing large amounts of charged particles at the Earth at all times, and these charged particles can damage ground-based communication networks, navigation systems and satellite equipment. Severe solar storms can also cause widespread power outages, such as the one that occurred in Quebec, Canada, in 1989.
The Earth’s magnetic field, generated by a liquid outer core about 3,000 kilometers deep underground, acts as a large shield to protect the planet from charged particles brought in by cosmic rays and violent solar winds.
Scientists have compared the Earth’s magnetic field to a large bar magnet passing through the center of the planet, although the poles of the geomagnetic field do not exactly coincide with the north and south poles of the Earth’s geographic location.
Before this study, scientists have always believed that the electromagnetic energy falling to the two poles is equal, however, this recently published in the journal “Nature Communications” (Nature Communications) found that the electromagnetic energy falling to the North Pole is significantly more than the South Pole.
The finding implies that in addition to protecting the Earth from solar radiation, the Earth’s magnetic field also has the function of controlling and directing how the external energy arrives on Earth is distributed.
“Because the geomagnetic south pole is farther from the Earth’s rotation axis than the north pole, the distribution of electromagnetic energy falling toward the Earth’s north and south poles is not symmetrical,” said study lead author Ivan Pakhotin, a researcher at the European Space Agency.
“We are not yet sure what the effect of this asymmetry is, and it could mean an asymmetry in the space climate and a difference between the aurora at the South Pole and the aurora at the North Pole. Our study also suggests that the chemical properties of the upper atmosphere at the North and South Poles may also be different, especially during periods of geomagnetic activity.”
The Swarm satellites, which include three identical satellites, were launched into orbit in 2013 and have not only provided a wealth of data on the Earth’s magnetic field, but have also helped scientists understand the formation of the geomagnetic field, its changing patterns and the migration of the geomagnetic North Pole.
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