I hear people talking about the earths magnetic poles reversing but how exactly could/would that happen?
In: 27
Inside of the Earth there is semi-molten rock, iron in particular. This causes magnetism, similar to how electricity flowing through a circular coil does. What matters most is the direction: if the flow changes from clockwise to counter-clockwise, the polarity reverses.
For reasons not yet fully understood reasons, this flow is unstable and changes over time. Luckily, time here means hundreds of thousands of years because everything is so heavy and slow to change.
The actual change is not a sudden switch of polarity. Right now, the poles are already moving around quite a bit. A hundred years ago, it moved at ~10 kilometers a year, it since then accelerated to over 50. The reversing will most likely come with poles moving around even faster, and them temporarily getting weaker, too. It might even happen that there will be more than two poles for some time.
Maybe it is best to look at the largest weather patterns, abusing **our atmosphere as a crude simulation for magnetic reversal**:
Take a look at how the wind high over Antarctica changed within the year 2022:
– [Winter](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/01/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): A weak counter-clockwise current.
– [Summer](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/07/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): An enormous clockwise current.
So how can one turn into the other? Lets take a look at the first of every month to see how it changes:
– [January 2022](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/01/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): the winter counter-clockwise cycle.
– [February](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/02/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): the cycle moved outwards, now there is meandering at the center.
– [March](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/03/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): more meandering, but we notice that it generally moves clockwise.
– [April](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/04/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): now we have a full clockwise current inside the counter-clockwise one.
– [May](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/05/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): the summer cycle dominates the South pole.
– [June](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/06/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): the summer cycle dominates the South pole.
– [July](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/07/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): the summer cycle dominates the South pole, but it wobbles.
– [August](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/08/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): the summer cycle dominates the South pole. The wobbling continues; it compares to the poles moving around as they do right now. It indicates the coming change.
– [September](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/09/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): the strong summer cycle is now quenched between two smaller clockwise ones.
– [October](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/10/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): the two small ones died off again, but the main one shrunk.
– [November](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/11/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): the two quenching ones are back with a vengeance. The magnetic equivalent of those are the aforementioned additional poles that might temporarily pop up.
– [December](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/12/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): The large one was pushed off and weakened, and one of the smaller ones invaded its territory. In effect, there are now two similarly strong cycles with opposite direction, fighting for the South pole. This creates an S-pattern.
– [January 2023](https://earth.nullschool.net/#2023/01/01/1200Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=-320.77,-90.00): The yearly cycle of cycles begins anew.
Feel free to play around with it, there is a panel with many options at the bottom left. In particular, finer dates, the more chaotic North pole due to the complex landmasses, and other heights will be interesting!
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