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Global Magnetic Anomaly

25 June 2020
Electromagnetism

At https://spaceweather.com (June 26th 2020) as we are still in solar minima, in transit between two solar cycles, earth's magnetic field has been relatively quiet. On June 23rd inmstruments picked up a magnetic anomaly reports Stuart Green of Preston. For over 30 minutes the local field oscillated like a sine wave (see link above for graph). No sign of any solar wind eruptions reported from NOAA. Nothing. The same oddity was picked up in Norway by another amateur researcher using a magnetometer. He also detected ground currents which is an additional oddity as well as the magnetic field rocking and rolling. Some physicists call this 'pulsation continuous' which is derived from solar wind, or plasma, always present in space and fluttering against earth's magnetic field and Van Allen belt, which excites it. During full activity on the Sun such flutters are barely noticeable but during minima they can be distinctive. Earth's magnetic field was so quiet on June 23rd the ripple was heard all around the world. Magnetic observatories picked it up in places as far away as Hawaii and China.

Meanwhile, Comet NEOWISE is still intact which is exciting astronomers. It is passing around the sun this week, not visible as a result of glare, but will emerge in the first week of July. Whether it will remain intact is another question.

PSD … the story is now up at numerous web sites and blogs – see for example https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/25/weird-out-of-nowhere-something-ju… … but beware of the comments.

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