Latest Geomagnetism Stories

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new analysis of over 56 years of data has revealed that sockeye salmon use a magnetic map to return to their spawning grounds after years at sea. The findings of this study were published online in the journal Current Biology. "To find their way back home across thousands of kilometers of ocean, salmon imprint on the magnetic field that exists where they first enter the sea as juveniles," said Nathan Putman of Oregon State...

[Watch Video: Solar Superstorm] Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A solar superstorm may be brewing and there is little we can do to prevent it from disrupting our communications and electrical systems here on Earth. But there is more we can do to prepare for such an event, according to a new report by the Royal Academy of Engineering. Authors of the study said the UK should plan to mitigate the effects of a potentially dangerous solar storm now before it’s...

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online For many in the extreme upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, the Aurora borealis (better known as the Northern Lights) offer breathtaking displays of color and lights, dancing effortlessly across the night sky. These lights, which are caused by solar winds bouncing off the Earth’s upper atmosphere, are typically visible only around the Polar ‘auroral zone’ due to the strong magnetic forces around this region. However,...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online The Earth’s core formed under more oxidizing conditions than previously believed, claims a new study published in Thursday’s edition of the journal Science Express. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) geophysicist Rick Ryerson and an international team of colleagues made the discovery following a series of laser-heated diamond anvil cell experiments at high pressure (350,000 to 700,000 atmospheres) and temperatures...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Data collected from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Cluster Mission showed for the first time how turbulence within solar wind can create a warming effect as the charged particles travel away from the sun. The solar wind is formed by electrically charged plasma being ejected from the sun’s super hot atmosphere. According to a new report in the new issue of Physical Review Letters based on Cluster data, very small “current...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The Maori of New Zealand have been cooking in earth ovens, called hangi or umu, since at least the 1200s. These ovens are fire pits, scooped out of the ground. A fire is built and large volcanic stones are laid over the fire. When the fire burns down, the food is wrapped in leaves, placed in baskets and laid on the rocks with wet fern fronds. A layer of earth is scraped over the food, sealing in the heat and steam. The stones inside...

NASA Image Release: Karen C. Fox, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. On Nov. 20, 2012, at 7:09 a.m. EST, the sun erupted with a coronal mass ejection or CME. Not to be confused with a solar flare, a CME is a solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and can reach Earth one to three days later. When Earth-directed, CMEs can affect electronic systems in satellites and on Earth. Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from the Solar...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has renamed a recently launched mission that studies Earth's radiation belts as the Van Allen Probes in honor of the late James Van Allen. Van Allen was the head of the physics department at the University of Iowa who discovered the radiation belts encircling Earth in 1958. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The new name of the mission, previously called the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), was...

ESA’s quartet of satellites studying Earth’s magnetosphere, Cluster, has discovered that our protective magnetic bubble lets the solar wind in under a wider range of conditions than previously believed. Earth’s magnetic field is our planet’s first line of defense against the bombardment of the solar wind. This stream of plasma is launched by the Sun and travels across the Solar System, carrying its own magnetic field with it. Depending on how the solar wind’s interplanetary...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Scientists writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) said the magnetic gravity fields of Earth are going through some changes. Earth's magnetic field is generated by flows of liquid iron in the outer core. The Earth's magnetic field protects us from cosmic radiation particles. By understanding these processes in the outer core, scientists are able to have a better grasp of the terrestrial shield....