Check your compass: The magnetic North Pole is on the move
WASHINGTON: North isn’t quite where it used to be.
Earth’s north magnetic pole has been drifting so fast in the last few decades that scientists say that past estimates are no longer accurate enough for precise navigation. On Monday, they released an update of where magnetic north really was, nearly a year ahead of schedule.
The magnetic North Pole is wandering about 55km a year. It crossed the international date line in 2017, and is leaving the Canadian Arctic on its way to Siberia.
The constant shift is a problem for compasses in smartphones and consumer electronics. Planes and boats also rely on magnetic north, usually as back-up navigation, said University of Colorado geophysicist Arnaud Chulliat, lead author of the World Magnetic Model. GPS isn’t affected because it’s satellite-based.
The military depends on where magnetic north is for navigation and parachute drops, while NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and US Forest Service also use it. Airport runway names are based on their direction towards magnetic north and their names change when the poles moved. For example, the airport in Fairbanks, Alaska, renamed a runway 1L-19R to 2L-20R in 2009.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and UK tend to update the location of the magnetic North Pole every five years in December, but this update came early because of the pole’s faster movement.
The movement of the magnetic North Pole “is pretty fast”, Chulliat said.