Ultraviolet light from the sun collides with atoms in this region knocking electrons loose. As radio waves enter Earth’s atmosphere from space some of the waves are absorbed by the electrons in the ionosphere while others pass through and are detectable to ground based observers.

The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important role in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere. It has practical importance because, among other functions, it influences radio propagation to distant places on the Earth.

The ozone layer

The ozone layer acts as a filter for the shorter wavelength and highly hazardous ultraviolet radiation (UVR) from the sun, protecting life on Earth from its potentially harmful effects.

the equator

Without the magnetosphere, the relentless action of these solar particles could strip the Earth of its protective layers, which shield us from the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation. It’s clear that this magnetic bubble was key to helping Earth develop into a habitable planet.

In an area stretching from Africa to South America, Earth’s magnetic field is gradually weakening. For example, recent studies have shown that the position of the north magnetic pole is changing rapidly. Over the last 200 years, the magnetic field has lost around 9% of its strength on a global average.

Read more: The north pole is moving and if it flips, life on Earth is in trouble. When the magnetic field weakens, more cosmic rays enter the atmosphere and transform certain atoms into radioactive carbon-14, raising levels of this isotope.

But the reality is that: Multiple magnetic fields would fight each other. This could weaken Earth’s protective magnetic field by up to 90% during a polar flip. Earth’s magnetic field is what shields us from harmful space radiation which can damage cells, cause cancer, and fry electronic circuits and electrical grids.

But if Earth’s axis tilted to 90 degrees, extreme seasons would cause intense climate change on every continent. During the summer, the Northern Hemisphere would experience nearly 24 hours of sunlight for months, which could melt ice caps, raise sea levels, and flood coastal cities.

Earth has two kinds of poles. The north and south magnetic poles, which affect things like navigation, drift and even switch places back and forth over time. This axis has also slightly shifted over time, but scientists haven’t been able to exactly figure out why.

Earth’s magnetic poles, whatever they’re doing, are not going to spark chaos and kill us all — a scenario making the rounds online right now. According to the Australian news site news.com.au, a magnetic flip would not only cause massive blackouts, “even flushing the toilet could become impossible.”

between 1,000 and 10,000 years

The Magnetic North Pole Is Rapidly Moving Because of Some Blobs. Earth’s magnetic north pole has shifted away from Canada and closer to Siberia at a rapid pace in recent years. Researchers believe two massive blobs of molten iron in Earth’s outer core may have spurred the runaway pole.

The fastest changes appear to be associated with local weakening of the magnetic field. Our model suggests this is caused by movement of patches of intense magnetic field across the surface of the liquid core.

No one actually lives at the North Pole. Inuit people, who live in the nearby Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, and Russia, have never made homes at the North Pole. The ice is constantly moving, making it nearly impossible to establish a permanent community.

Magnetic north was drifting at a rate of up to about 9 miles (15 km) a year. Since the 1990s, however, the drift of Earth’s magnetic north pole has turned into “more of a sprint,” scientists say. Its present speed is about 30 to nearly 40 miles a year (50-60 km a year) toward Siberia.

Current international law mandates that no single country owns the North Pole or the region of the Arctic Ocean that surrounds it. The five adjacent countries, Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark (via Greenland), and the United States, are restricted to a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone off their coasts.

Due to polar drift, the pole is moving northwest by about 10 to 15 kilometres (6 to 9 mi) per year. Its current distance from the actual Geographic South Pole is approximately 2,860 km (1,780 mi).

Earth’s spin axis – an imaginary line that passes through the North and South Poles – is always moving, due to processes scientists don’t completely understand. The way water is distributed on Earth’s surface is one factor that causes the axis, and therefore the poles, to shift.

1995

We all know that in any given day, planet Earth completes one complete rotation — this is the way it’s always been. As a result, we all sort of assume that the Earth rotates at about the same rate every year. In true 2021 fashion, however, scientists are theorizing that Earth somehow spun faster than normal last year.

The Earth is moving faster than it ever has in the last 50 years, scientists have discovered, and experts believe that 2021 is going to be the shortest year in decades. This is because the Earth is spinning faster on its axis quicker than it has done in decades and the days are therefore a tiny bit shorter.

Thus, the surface of the earth at the equator moves at a speed of 460 meters per second–or roughly 1,000 miles per hour. As schoolchildren, we learn that the earth is moving about our sun in a very nearly circular orbit. It covers this route at a speed of nearly 30 kilometers per second, or 67,000 miles per hour.

If Earth spins faster then it gets to the same position a little earlier. A half-a-millisecond equates to 10-inches or 26 centimetres at the equator.

If Earth stopped rotating, it would be a disaster, but if it were to rotate backwards, it might not be as catastrophic. Trade winds at the equator, which normally blow westward, would reverse — hurricanes would no longer travel from east to west across the Atlantic.

At very fast speeds—like, about 24,000 mph—and over thousands of years, eventually the Earth’s crust would shift too, flattening out at the poles and bulging around the equator. “We would have enormous earthquakes,” says Fraczek.

Normally, humans aren’t thrown off the moving Earth because gravity is holding us down. However, because we are rotating with the Earth, a ‘centrifugal force’ pushes us outwards from the centre of the planet. If this centrifugal force were bigger than the force of gravity, then we would be thrown into space.