A Mars Odyssey

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Catching scientists off-guard recently are small and rapid fluctuations that have been found to be occurring within the Earth’s magnetic field, with a worry they eventually will be leaving satellites and space assets vulnerable to high-energy radiation. Typically, this type of gradual weakening of the magnetic field takes a longer time frame to develop—hundreds to thousands of years on the norm. But this latest find has scientists perplexed about what is going on.

Using a new model for looking at fluid motions within the Earth, several online science articles are stating that satellite data from the past nine years have been recently observed which show how “sudden fluid motions within the Earth’s core can alert the magnetic envelope around our planet.” Considered the first time any of the researchers have been able to find such rapid changes in our magnetic field occurring in such a short time, apparently some kind of previous detection was found through the South Atlantic Anomaly which represents a “weak spot” in the magnetic field, or rather a “dent” in our protective bubble.

The detector involved in the find is a low-power magnetic sensor that is as small as a grain of rice, designed to detect any changes in the magnetic field as tiny as 50 picoteslas. Demonstrated by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), it is a million times weaker than the magnetic field of Earth. With the original research funded by the United States Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA-MTO), it is a six-pound device that can be powered by batteries and is approximately 100 times smaller than atom-based sensors we have now yet with similar sensitivities. Based on the 2004 NIST chip-scale atomic clock principles, it can be fabricated and assembled on semiconductor wafers which are use existing technology.

According to the NIST organization, magnetic fields are in the form of an electrical current or in metals—nickel, iron, and cobalt—produced by the motion of electrons. The 2004 NIST miniature magnetometer is sensitive enough to be able to detect a concealed rifle 40 feet away, or even a six-inch diameter steel pipeline up to 120 feet underground.