Are We Ready for Upcoming Geomagnetic Reversal?

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1:00The protective shield of our planet decays and eventually fails. So do our satellites. First communication satellites in the highest orbits go down. Next, astronauts in low Earth orbit can no longer contact their mission control center. And finally, hazardous, relentless cosmic rays start bombarding everything on Earth, causing havoc and devastation. Are these the terrifying consequences of the planet's magnetic field reversal we're going to face? Right now, as you're watching this video, Earth's North Magnetic Pole is extremely out of whack. It's so serious that scientists will have to update the global magnetic field model released a mere four years ago. Does it all mean that the magnetic pole of our planet will flip soon? Well, be patient. We'll figure it out a bit later. You see, the magnetic pole is moving quite erratically from the Canadian Arctic towards Siberia. And these movements are very unpredictable. But it's normal for the pole to be moving. There are long-term records from London and

2:04Paris that prove that the North Magnetic Pole moves randomly around the rotational North Pole over periods of several hundred years. But the most astonishing thing about its movement is that it's speeding up. Around the mid-1990s, the magnetic pole unexpectedly accelerated from a bit over nine miles to 34 miles a year. Dan recently, the pole crossed the international date line, moving toward the eastern hemisphere. The European Space Agency launched extremely accurate magnetic field satellites in 2013. Thanks to them, researchers have superb data they can use not only to make magnetic field maps, but also to update them every six to 12 months. That's how they were able to notice that the core field was weakening too. It might be a sign that the planet's magnetic field is about to flip. To understand this process better, we need to figure out how the core field works. Let's say we've got a bar magnet that runs through the center of our planet and has a North

3:09and a South Pole. This protein is now at Starbucks and it's never tasted so good. You can add protein, cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha. Try it today at Starbucks. Spring is here and the shopping list is long. Time to make a lows run. By three bags get three free of stay green one cubic foot garden soil. Plus right now, members can earn four times the points on an eligible purchase. Start spring off strong with these deals and more. Our best lineup is here at Loads. Balance the three twenty five while supplies last. Soil offer excludes the last going to why loyalty program subject to terms and conditions. See loads dot com slash terms for details subject to change point booster subject to exclusions and more terms apply one time only offer. Magnet is incredibly strong representing about seventy five percent of the intensity of our planet's magnetic field at the surface. Our bar magnet is not only moving but is also getting weaker by about seven percent every century. Admittedly, this bar isn't the perfect representation of the

4:16core field. It's more like electric currents generating Earth's magnetic field. Still, this model makes it easier to see what's happening to our planet now. The magnetic field of our planet plays an important role in protecting us from dangerous radiation and geomagnetic activity which is the product of the interaction between the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere. Earth's magnetic field also moves. Scientists have been studying and tracking the movement of the magnetic poles for hundreds of years. The historical motions of these poles indicates changes in the global geometry of the magnetic field of our planet and they may point to the beginning of the field reversal too. That's what the flip between the North and South magnetic poles is sometimes called. You see, if the North magnetic pole moves a bit, it isn't a big deal but a complete reversal might have a serious impact on the climate of our planet as well as modern technology. Luckily,

5:18such flips don't happen overnight. The entire process stretches over thousands of years. Plus, even though the magnetic pole weakens during a pole reversal, it doesn't disappear completely. So, those scary events from the beginning of the video aren't likely to happen to us. The magnetosphere will continue protecting the planet from cosmic rays and charged solar particles, even though there might be some amount of particulate radiation that will make it to Earth's surface. Magnetic fields are generated by moving electric charges. If some material allows these charges to easily move in it, it's called a conductor. Metal is a great conductor and we often use it to transfer electric currents from one place to another. In this case, the electric current is negative charges called electrons moving through the metal. The current is what generates a magnetic field. Earth has a liquid iron core. In other words, there are layers and layers of conducting material inside our planet. Currents of charges are constantly moving through

6:22the core and the liquid metal is also moving and circulating there, generating the magnetic field. This magnetic field, in turn, produces something resembling a bubble around the planet. It's called the magnetosphere and it's located above the uppermost part of the atmosphere. This layer shields into flex high energy cosmic radiation, which otherwise would be extremely dangerous to people in other forms of life on Earth. The magnetosphere also interacts with the ionosphere, the layer of our planet's atmosphere containing loads of ions and free electrons and capable of reflecting radio waves. The interaction between these two layers and the magnetized solar winds is what scientists call space weather. The solar wind is normally mild and there's no space weather whatsoever. But sometimes, the sun starts shedding gargantuan magnetized clouds of gas that can accelerate to incredible speeds. They're called

7:23coronal mass ejections or CMEs. They're ejected from the sun over the course of several hours. CMEs usually look like giant twisted ropes and can occur spontaneously. Their frequency varies according to the 11-year-long solar cycle. For example, at a solar minimum, you can observe one ejection per day and when the sun is in its most active phase, there might be three CMEs per day. Coronal mass ejections disrupt the calm flow of the solar wind and cause serious disturbances that can damage stuff both in space near Earth like satellites and on the planet's surface. If coronal mass ejections make it to Earth, their interaction with the magnetosphere generates geomagnetic storms. Those can trigger auroras, happening when a stream of energized particles hits the atmosphere and lights up. And then, there are also solar flares. They develop more rapidly and with much more energy than coronal mass ejections. Solar flares often occur soon

8:25after coronal mass ejections. The most powerful volcanic eruptions pale in comparison to solar flares that release 10 million times more energy. Within a few minutes, one solar flare can give out billions of times of charged particles. Solar flares are also insanely high, with temperatures reaching several million degrees Fahrenheit. Astronomers believe that such bursts of solar radiation happen when the sun's magnetic field gets twisted in some regions. At one moment, all the pen-up energy is released. The star sends out light and particles, mostly electrons and protons. Most solar flares last for minutes, but some continue for hours. A powerful solar storm can potentially cause a devastating global blackout on Earth. If not for the Earth's magnetosphere, the effects of the sun's activity would be much more devastating. Luckily, the magnetosphere deflects most of the solar material, purdling towards our planet from our star, at a speed of over

9:28one million miles per hour. But, even so, during space weather events, there's a lot of hazardous radiation near Earth. It can potentially harm astronauts and spacecraft. Plus, space weather can damage large conducting systems, for example, pipelines and power grids, by overloading currents running inside them. Scientists regularly map and track the overall orientation and shape of our planet's magnetic field. To do it, they use local measurements of the field's orientation and magnitude. That's why they've been able to conclude that the location of the North magnetic pole has moved by almost 600 miles, since the first measurements were taken in 1831. The magnetic field of our planet reverses on a time scale varying between 100,000 to 1 million years. One can tell how often it happens by looking at volcanic rocks at the bottom of the ocean. They capture the orientation and strength of Earth's magnetic field at the time of their creation.

10:32So, dating those rocks gives us a good picture of how our planet's magnetic field has evolved over time. From a geological point of view, field reversals happen quite fast, but they are extremely slow from a human perspective. A complete reversal normally takes a couple of thousand years, but during this time, the orientation of the magnetosphere may shift, exposing more of Earth to cosmic radiation. Such events tend to change the concentration of ozone in the atmosphere. In any case, scientists can't say for sure when the next field reversal will happen, but they keep mapping and tracking the movement of our planet's magnetic north. By the way, the Earth isn't the only planet with a magnetic field. Gas giants, like Jupiter, also have a conducting metallic hydrogen layer that generates their magnetic fields. Jupiter's internal magnetic field prevents the solar wind from interacting directly with the planet's

11:33atmosphere.