what is the difference between the magnetic north pole and the ‘geomagnetic’ north pole? Remember…I’m 5 here.

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I looked it up on Wikipedia; I’ve tried googling.

The explanations use big words and jargon I don’t understand.

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7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The earth has three sets of poles.

The geographic poles are the points on exotic opposite ends of the earth defined by the earths rotation. Like the bar that goes through a globe.

The magnetic poles are where your compass will point. They are created by the magnetic dynamo of the earths metallic liquid outer core swirling around. However the field it creates is complex due to various eddys and other material in the earth so neither the north or south magnetic pole are the same as the geographic poles. They move around over time. And they aren’t exactly opposite each other either.

The geomagnetic pole is what the magnetic poles would be if the earths magnetic field could be modeled by an ideal bar magnet. It’s more of an average of the magnetic field and it’s affects over time. It’s a useful model for understanding certain features of the earths overall magnetic field. It also is where we see the auroras, in rings around these theoretical poles. Like the geographic pole these poles are exact opposites.

TLDR:
Geographic – Axis of earths rotation
Magnetic – Where your compass points
Geomagnetic – Around which we see the aurora

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