The European Space Agency (ESA) scientists have warned that the earth's geomagnetic field is weakening in some areas area between Africa and South America. The ESA has termed the phenomenon of this change of geomagnetic field or the surface magnetic field as 'South Atlantic Anomaly'. In recent years, the North Magnetic Pole of the earth has also moved away from Canada towards Siberia in Russia.
Earth's magnetic field, which exists due to metal and liquid outer core about 3,000 km below the surface, creates electric currents that generate and change our electromagnetic fields. The surface magnetic field, which spans around tens and thousands of kilometers away from the earth, protects us from cosmic radiations as well as it aids the communication of satellites and spacecraft. Apart from that, the geomagnetic field forms the planet’s magnetosphere. The ESA has also said that this phenomenon has also caused moving and "shifting westward at a pace of around 20 kilometers per year."
According to the recent finding, the South Atlantic Anomaly is also causing the decline of the geomagnetic field continuously as it has lost almost 10 percent of its strength in the last two decades. As per a report published in The Independent, the last time such an event took place was 780,000 years ago.
A researcher at German Research Centre for Geosciences, Jurgen Matzka said, "The new, eastern minimum of the South Atlantic Anomaly has appeared over the last decade and in recent years is developing vigorously."
The scientists are now studying to find out various reasons that are leading to such deterioration of the magnetic field.
