In fact, the Arctic ice sheet will be thin enough for ice breakers to carve a straight path between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, according to a study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Scientists predict that ships will be able to sail directly over the North Pole by the year 2050. (Image credit: Image by Allen Lunsford, NASA GSFC Direct Readout Laboratory Data courtesy Tromso receiving station, Svalbard, Norway) On thin ice Research stations have reported cyclones at the North Pole and, in recent years, ice melt and cracks, which is part of Arctic climate change.Ī true-color image taken on May 5, 2000, by an instrument aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft, over the North Pole, with sea ice shown in white and open water in black. Though it is by no means warm, it is considerably warmer than in the land-based South Pole in Antarctica, because the North Pole is over water. During the summer, there is sunlight all day during the winter, it is always dark.ĭuring the winter, the Geographic North Pole's annual mean temperature is minus 40 Fahrenheit (minus 40 Celsius). North Pole weatherīecause of Earth's tilted axis, the North Pole experiences only one sunrise and one sunset every year, at the March and September equinoxes, respectively. The last "flip" occurred 730,000 years ago. This change will happen slowly and not in our lifetimes. Eventually, the magnetic North and South poles will move to the point that they "flip" and compasses would point south. The change could cause problems for migrating birds and human navigation. But the magnetic field drifts, causing the angle of declination to change over time.Ĭurrently, the Magnetic North Pole moves about 25 miles (40 km) each year in a northwest direction - at a faster rate than it has moved since tracking began in the 1830s. Since its discovery in 1831, the Magnetic North Pole has been around Canada's Ellesmere Island, about 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the Geographic North Pole. The magnetic poles and the geographic poles don't line up, and the difference between them is called declination. Because Earth's Magnetic North Pole attracts the "north" ends of other magnets, it is technically the "south pole" of the planet's magnetic field. In other words, the north pole of one magnet is attracted to the south pole of another magnet. This creates a toroidal, or doughnut-shaped field, as the direction of the field propagates outward from the north pole and enters through the south pole. Opposite poles (N and S) attract, and like poles (N and N, or S and S) repel, according to Joseph Becker of San Jose State University. Magnetic field sources are dipolar, having a north and south magnetic pole. However, what we call the Magnetic North Pole is actually a south magnetic pole. Compasses point to the magnetic North Pole. Earth's iron core and movement within its outer part generates a magnetic field, and the magnetic North and South poles are where the field is vertical. The Magnetic North Pole is not the same as "true north" it is several hundreds of miles south of the Geographic North Pole.
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