NASA’s TRACERS satellites Studies Magnetic Explosions Above Earth

Recommendable!

Wandering aurorae may have helped doom the Neanderthals during a geomagnetic reversal and introduced sunscreens

Amazing stuff, but speculative to some extent!

Did the Homo sapiens spend more time in caves than Neanderthals to avoid the intense solar radiation?

"Every once in a while, Earth’s magnetic field decides to pull a switcheroo, causing the North and South poles to swap places. This phenomenon, which is known as geomagnetic reversal, has occurred about 180 times in our planet’s history.

But when the poles started to wander from their positions approximately 41,000 years ago, they never finished the job, resulting in a short-lived excursion rather than a total flip. According to the results of a new study, the event may have helped drive Neanderthals to extinction ...

When researchers created a 3D reconstruction of what Earth’s geospace system looked like during this ancient excursion, they discovered that the planet’s magnetic field shrank to about 10% of its modern strength. This weakening exposed Earth to huge amounts of solar radiation and allowed aurorae, typically only visible near the North and South poles, to be seen all over Europe and into northern Africa.

Around the same time, Homo sapiens and Neanderthal populations were coexisting in Europe, although the latter soon began to decline. ... anatomically modern humans may have protected themselves from harmful radiation by wearing more tailored clothing and increasing their use of ochre—a mineral that has sunscreen-like properties when applied to the skin. ..."

From the abstract:

"In the recent geological past, Earth’s magnetic field reduced to ~10% of the modern values and the magnetic poles shifted away from the geographic poles, causing the Laschamps geomagnetic excursion, about 41 millennia ago. The excursion lasted ~2000 years, with dipole strength reduction and tilting spanning 300 years.

During this period, the geomagnetic field’s multipolarity resembled outer planets, causing rapid magnetospheric changes.

To our knowledge, this study presents the first space plasma analysis of the excursion, linking the geomagnetic field, magnetospheric system, and upper atmosphere in sequence using feedback channels for distinct temporal epochs.

A three-dimensional reconstruction of Earth’s geospace system shows that these shifts affected auroral regions and open magnetic field lines, causing them to expand and wander toward lower latitudes.

These changes likely altered the upper atmosphere’s composition and influenced anthropological progress during that era. Looking through a modern lens, such an event would disrupt contemporary technology, including communications and satellite infrastructure."

ScienceAdviser

Wandering of the auroral oval 41,000 years ago (open access)

Fig. 1. Variations in Earth’s internal magnetic field during the Laschamps Event.

Fig. 2. Reconstructed magnetospheric configurations across successive temporal epochs during the Laschamps excursion.

Fig. 3. Visualization of auroral charged particle energy flux variations and corresponding auroral zone wandering during the Laschamps excursion.

Earth's Weakening Magnetossphere

Posted: 2/1/2017   Updated: 1/12/2019, 2/4/2017

Update Of 1/12/2019

Just read this article published by Nature Journal: Earth’s magnetic field is acting up and geologists don’t know why Erratic motion of north magnetic pole forces experts to update model that aids global navigation.

“On 15 January, they 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.”

Surprisingly, this article is completely silent about the long overdue magnetic pole flip and the overall weakening of the magnetosphere for the past 200-300 years.

Update Of 2/4/2017

Just discovered this article about a new model that can also be used for the earth’s core:

“ … The new material is made from an alloy of indium and gallium (eGaIn) with various particles suspended within it. When flowing, its ability to generate or modify magnetic fields is up to five times greater than that of pure liquid metal. That, along with a significant increase in electrical conductivity, means researchers can use the material to study the effects of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)—the magnetic properties of conductive fluids usually only observable in the cores of planets and stars. … Attempts to recreate the Earth's magnetic field have been attempted in other labs, but with limited success. Most involve the use of highly explosive liquid sodium, which requires very large models.

"People have tried these big flow chambers as large as three meters across, filled with liquid sodium and spinning around like a miniature Earth," said Brown.

With the material ... scientists can potentially create models as small as 20 square centimeters to recreate the phenomena of magnetic fields. … allows users to tune its viscosity and levels of magnetism to better fit their own research and applications.”

Original Post

Trigger

Just watched this video NOVA Magnetic Pole Flip 530,000 Years Overdue & Happening Now? on Youtube (Unfortunately, PBS would not allow the original video to be found via Google. You can’t even find this video on Nova’s own website!).

A Weakening Magnetosphere

The above documentary makes a number of scary statements:

1. The magnetosphere has been weakening considerable over the past 200-300 years or so as evidenced by measurements
2. The magnetic pole flip happens about every 200,000 years or so, but the last one occurred 530,000 years ago
3. Without the magnetosphere life on earth is seriously threatened as it e.g. deflects most of the constant solar winds to reach earth’s surface and the atmosphere would disappear over time
4. A magnetic pole flip may take thousands of years. During the transition period wandering multipoles may appear (as opposed to the normal dipole) etc.

An Underreported Apocalypse Waiting To Happen?

It appears to be a strangely underreported, very consequential natural phenomenon. If I were a conspiracy theorist, then I would assume that the citizens of the world are deliberately left in the dark.

Global Warming (a.k.a. Climate Change) and its asserted negative effects are a walk in the park compared to a magnetic pole flip. Unlike Global Warming, which human ingenuity can easily counteract, a permanently weakened or further weakening magnetosphere is beyond human capabilities.