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South Atlantic Anomaly is playing with the Earth’s Magnetic Field

Recent data revealed by the Swarm satellites of the European Space Agency (ESA) has confirmed the presence of a mysterious anomaly that weakening the Earth’s magnetic field. Named as ‘South Atlantic Anomaly’, it spreads all the way from South America to southwest Africa.


What is South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA)?

Many of us would confuse it with some climatic or oceanic current related phenomena but it’s something else. South Atlantic Anomaly is the behaviour of Earth’s Geo-Magnetic field in a range between South America and Africa. South Atlantic Anomaly is the zone where the Earth’s inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to the Earth’s surface, to an altitude of only 200 kilometres. This causes an increased flux of energy particles in this region and exposes the satellites orbiting in the region with higher-than-usual levels of solar radiation. This anomaly is caused due the non-concentricity of the Earth and its magnetic dipole. At this region the Earth’s magnetic field is the weakest relative to an average Earth-centered dipole field.

What is Weakening of the Earth’s Magnetic Field?

Over the last 2 centuries, the Earth’s magnetic field has lost around 9% of its strength on a global average. A large and rapid loss has been detected in the SAA region over the past 50 years. Interestingly this area has grown and moved westward towards African continent. The study conducted between 1970 and 2020 has confirmed that the rate of growth is quite noticeable at around 20 km per annum.


How SAA impact the Earth

The weakening of the Earth’s magnetic field due to SAA is causing technical difficulties for the satellites and spacecraft orbiting around the planet. The magnetic field also act as a shield that protects us from keeping unwanted radiation away. The magnetic field around us helps in determine the location of magnetic poles. Unlike global warming or any climatic events, this anomaly doesn’t directly impact human lives, it could actually bring on a change in the way we use technology. The impact on satellite and telecommunication system can actually disturb the internet and mobile phone functioning which depend on satellite signals. The mapping and navigation systems in smartphones also gets impacted due to its effect on Earth’s magnetic pole. Migratory birds and animals’ use there inbuilt mapping system to identify their migration path. The weakening of earth’s magnetic field could also impact their migratory movement.

Van Allen Radiation Belt

A Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, like electrons and protons that are coming from the sun that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet’s magnetic field. The belts are located in the inner region of Earth’s magnetosphere. Earth has two such belts of which one is temporarily created. The magnetic field traps the solar wind and deflects those energetic particles and protects the atmosphere from destruction.


Swarm Constellation

To study Earth’s magnetic field the European Space Agency (ESA) has launched a constellation of three satellites (Alpha, Bravo and Charlie) at Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) named as swarm Constellation. These are Earth observation satellite placed in two different polar orbits, at an altitude of 450 km and 530 km.

 

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