Magnetosphere

Earths Magnetic Shielding

Say thanks to the Earth’s Magnetic field because without it you would not be here.

Earth’s Magnetic Field

The Earth rotates around the geographical poles in an anticlockwise direction looking down from above the North pole. The Earth has an internal magnetic field, whose poles lie at an angle of around 18° to the Earth’s axis.

The Earth has a magnetic field similar a bar magnet as shown in the diagram but it is more complicated. The north magnetic pole has been moving rapidly in the past decade more than 10 times normal and is currently at 86.50°N and 164.04°E.

The South Pole is at 64.07°S and 135.88°E which is not on a straight axis of magnetic North South through the Earth’s centre. So the bar magnetic should be shown off centre by 20°. This means that in reality the internal magnetic field is much more complicated than shown and is not like a bar magnet.

Notice that the magnetic field strength, length of arrows, is much larger at the poles than the equator.

SOlar wind

The Sun has a complex magnetic field. Sunspots are caused by active magnetic loops and flares are bursts of plasma along magnetic field lines that stretch away from the sun. The Sun’s magnetic poles reverse every 11 years.

You can see the magnetic field lines in the photo of the eclipse. The streams of solar wind which are streams of hydrogen plasma are very noticeable.

It is called an amazing “coincidence” that the moon exactly eclipses the sun as shown here but there are other very unlikely numerical ratios between the Earth and the Moon that show this is not random chance. Our Earth, Moon, Sun system was deliberately designed in this way and our ancient ancestors once understood why.

cosmic rays

The solar wind consists of hydrogen ions, which are just protons shot out from the sun at around 400Km/s where most are deflected away into space by the Earth’s magnetic field but some travel along the magnetic field lines to the poles where they form the aurora.

Protons from some other stars in the galaxy, or exploding stars are ejected and then accelerated by interstellar magnetic fields so they are travelling at close to the speed of light. These are called cosmic rays. Low energy cosmic rays fall at the rate of one per second per square meter, while the most powerful cosmic rays fall at around one per year.

When they hit the atmosphere they shatter the atoms of the atmosphere and turn them into high velocity particles that shatter more atoms. See the diagram on the right. Strangely this strikes the Earth like a pancake of particles about a meter across. If it hits you the particles damage your DNA permanently. This causes ageing and eventual death.

So thank the magnetosphere again for protecting you from most of these particles.

Water Sports

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Snow Adventure

Winter Sports

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Forest Tours

Camping

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