Any idea what a mechanism linking earth's magnetism and climate might be?
Any idea what a mechanism linking earth's magnetism and climate might be?
I am not a climatologist (or whaever its called) but for a very simple illustration of the relationship of magnetism and climate....
You have seen those little devices that can stir liquids without any mechanical content? Set a beaker down and it amazingly begins to rotate into the familiar vortex form?
That is rotating magnetism at work. on a very very minuscle scale. Take the magnetic energies of our liquid metallic core (causing ocean currents and affecting air currents) - if the core fields shift, then all it affects shifts with it. The Humbolt current (of Kon Tiki fame) runs down the coast of South America all the way through the South Pacific and it's patter affects our west coast in the form of El Nino and La Nina (never could make a tilde)
Imagine the Humbolt current shifting north...North of it would become warmer - south, cooler. Like I said - simplified example. Peru could become a tropical paradise instead of the desert it is now if the current shifted south. Add to that all the other major ocean currents that are more responsible for climate than anything. The western pacific currdnts change and India would become fruitful instead of a combination of barren deserts and flooded plains. Shift that current the other direction and we would have our mid east desert a ways further to the east and Baghdad a Med paradise ?
All because the magnetic fields shifted one way or another.
I have NEVER seen a study of the effects of the polar reversal though - probably near to catastrophic for the urban populations.
The poles reverse polarity about every 25,000 years. I believe the earth's magnetic field blocks some of the sun's rays. If this is true, there would probably be a point halfway through the polarity shift that would have reduced protection. Just speculation, no flames please.
"Any idea what a mechanism linking earth's magnetism and climate might be?"
When you want to go to Florida in the Winter, you end up in Canada 'cuz your compass is all messed up.
I'm not real sure what the big deal with the magnetic reversal would be. I think the one thing is they don't know if the field weakens as it revearses, and how long the reversal process takes. The magnetic field protects us from solar radiation. No field and things would warm up pretty quick and dramatically.
Now if we could get enough tinfoil ........