“The North Pole”

(Disclaimer)

To most of us the North Pole is where the needle on our compass needle points.

Tonight we’re going to get into the North Pole facts that few know about.

Weather it’s called the Geographic North Pole…Terrestrial North Pole…Magnetic North Dip Pole…or just the North Pole it all refers to the same place.

By Definition

It is defined as a point in the northern hemisphere where the earth’s axis of rotation meets it’s surface. The North Pole is the northernmost point on the Earth, lying diametrically opposite the South Pole. It defines geodetic latitude 90° North, as well as the direction of true north.

Pole is moving

Everyone has heard that the north pole is moving towards Siberia. This is actually the magnetic north that is being talked about. It has been drifting around aimlessly as it has for centuries, It’s been shown from old ships’ logs that in the past 400 years, the north magnetic pole has hung around northern Canada. Until the 1900s, in the past 115 years it started to move north, and in the past 30 years has accelerated greatly, from moving at about 5 miles a year to 37.2 miles a year today.

#1

#2

The curious shift in direction and rate grabbed scientists’ attention and forced them to take rare actions out of concern for those who navigate in the Arctic regions, they have updated the official map of the world’s magnetic field (called WMM the World Magnetic Model) used by map makers, to pinpoint the pole’s location more accurately.

From the North Pole all directions point south; all lines of longitude converge there, so its longitude can be defined as any degree value. Along tight latitude circles, counterclockwise is east and clockwise is west.

#3

While the South Pole lies on a continental land mass, the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice.

#4

This makes it impractical to construct a permanent station at the North Pole (unlike the South Pole has).

#5

The sun at the North Pole is continuously above the horizon during the summer and continuously below the horizon during the winter. Sunrise occurs just before the March equinox (around 20 March); the sun then takes three months to reach its highest point of near 23½° elevation at the summer solstice(around 21 June), after which time it begins to sink, reaching sunset just after the September equinox (around 23 September)

#6

The North Magnetic Pole is the wandering point on the surface of Earth‘s Northern Hemisphere at which the planet’s magnetic field points vertically downwards (in other words, if a magnetic compass needle is allowed to rotate about a horizontal axis, it will point straight down in to the earth). There is only one location where this occurs, near (but distinct from) the Geographic North Pole and the Geomagnetic North Pole.

The Earth’s North and South Magnetic Poles are also known as Magnetic Dip Poles, with reference to the vertical “dip” of the magnetic field lines at those points that I just mentioned you can see above.^[5]

The North Magnetic Dip Pole moves over time due to magnetic changes in the Earth’s core.^[1] it was moving toward Russia at about ( 37 mi) per year.

What makes it magnetic?

Earth developed a magnetic field at least 4 billion years ago.

When this ancient magnetic field occurred, it was determined that the magnetic field made our 500 million year old planet more hospitable for life to exist and flourish.

How is this possible?

It did this by preventing the Sun’s incredibly powerful solar wind from stripping away the earth’s atmosphere of the elements we would need to exist by acting as a large deflector and continually rotating the earth surface facing the sun. and solar winds.

The iron-nickel core is so hot that it flows like water, 1,869 miles beneath the surface, creating the magnetic field and dragging it around the planet. Core temperature is approximately 15 million degrees Kelvin or 26.99 million degrees Fahrenheit.

#7

“The north magnetic pole has been caught up in this jet stream like action and it’s pushing it rapidly North across the Arctic Sea to Siberia,” scientists don’t know why now it’s headed in that direction.

Interesting fact is that Mars also had it’s magnetic field 4 billion years ago, however unlike Earth, it’s magnetic field did not protect the planet from the sun’s radiation damage losing it’s dense atmosphere which is why it became a barren planet.

#8

The south magnetic pole is moving far more slowly than the north, because the liquid core is moving differently in the southern hemisphere.

#9

How can I get to the North Pole?

If you have enough money, then the most common method is flying first to the Svalbard archipelago halfway between the top of Norway and the North Pole and then on to the Barneo ice station where you can take a helicopter for the final 60-odd miles to the Geographic North Pole.

For the most part, it is frozen over and hence, at the right time of year, it is possible to travel there on foot, ski, dog sled or similar means of transportation.

This is the nuclear powered Russian ship ARCTIKA.

Robert Peary’s party made their trip on foot by ski and sledge at what they claimed was the North Pole, 1909.

#10

Auroras, like the ones we know as the Northern Lights or Polar lights ( also called aurora borealis) and southern lights (called aurora australis) are actually caused by the interaction of Earth’s magnetic field with the Sun’s solar winds going past the upper and lower hemispheres.

#11

When charged particles from the sun strike atoms in Earth’s atmosphere, they cause electrons in the atoms to move to a higher-energy state.

When the electrons drop back to a lower energy state, when this happens, they release a photon: light.

This creates the beautiful aurora, or northern lights that can be easily seen in the high latitude regions around the Arctic and Antarctica.

#12 Aurora Borealis

Often to view the lights you have be at a high altitude, this shot is from space.

#13

You can see here in Iofotin, Norway that the lights are visible at ground level.

I have been asked by the Transmitter Hunters over the years, how many degrees off is Magnetic North from True North? Well that depends….

#14

Depending on where you are, the angle between true north and magnetic north is different. In the U.S., the angle of declination varies from about 20 degrees east in Maine to about 21 degrees west in Washington.

There are so many facts, issues, conflicts and theories concerning the North Pole that it is beyond the scope of this presentation or time slot to cover them all.

73 – Earl WB6AMT