Magnetic field that helps radar detection weakening over North America, claims China
Earth is surrounded by an immense magnetic field called the magnetosphere.
Scientists in China claimed that the magnetic shield over North America is weakening rapidly. The geomagnetic field, a kind of natural barrier, protects Earth from cosmic radiation, which can create disturbances in the atmospheric system.
The cause of the magnetic shield losing strength ‘exceptionally fast’ has yet to be determined. However, initially, it’s being linked to the shift of the geomagnetic poles from the western to the eastern hemisphere.
Scientists, led by Professor Fang Hanxian of the National University of Defence Technology, also revealed that the magnetic field over the eastern hemisphere, including China, is strengthening.
Significant reversal occurred in past 30 years
Chinese scientists published a peer-reviewed paper last month highlighting the weakening of magnetic shields.
Fang’s team employed the latest models and data to reconstruct global magnetic field strength changes since 1900. They found that from 1930 to 1990, the magnetic field strength in North America increased and was higher than in many other regions of the world, reported SCMP.
However, Chinese scientists claimed that a significant reversal has occurred in the past 30 years: by 2020, the magnetic field strength in this region had dropped to a level barely above the global average.
Scientists maintain that the change is exceptional from a global perspective.
Magnetosphere plays role of gatekeeper
An immense magnetic field, called the magnetosphere, surrounds Earth. Generated by powerful, dynamic forces, the magnetosphere shields us from the erosion of the atmosphere by the solar wind (charged particles our sun continually spews at us), erosion and particle radiation from coronal mass ejections (massive clouds of energetic and magnetized solar plasma and radiation), and cosmic rays from deep space.
NASA claims that the magnetosphere plays the role of gatekeeper, repelling unwanted energy harmful to life on Earth, trapping most of it a safe distance from Earth’s surface in twin doughnut-shaped zones called the Van Allen Belts.
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