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[The following is for idle speculation and mental recreation.]
A recent issue of Scientific American had an article about the Earth's magnetic field reversals. The article presents some plausible explanations of the reversals that have occurred repeatedly throughout geologic times. It also presents some indications that another reversal is like to happen soon (in terms of geological time-scale "soon"). It was interesting to contemplate the consequences of a reversal on our daily lives. What is ATC going to use for headings? You may be going geographically northward but the compass is reading around 180. Which number do you use to describe what's actually happening? Airways are prescribed on magnetic courses. VOR orientations are aligned to magnetic directions. I imagine that magnetic reversals don't occur overnight, so the transition would be even more chaotic. We'd get a magnetic deviation setting along with the local altimeter setting in clearances? Since the scenario may be a thousand years or more in the future ("tomorrow" on the geologic time-scale), none of us has to worry about it in the next few days. |
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