Here's National Geographic: Magnetic north just changed. Here's what that means. Maya Wei-Haas tells this:
Magnetic north has never sat still. In the last hundred years or so, the direction in which our compasses steadfastly point has lumbered ever northward, driven by Earth's churning liquid outer core some 1,800 miles beneath the surface. Yet in recent years, scientists noticed something unusual: Magnetic north's routine plod has shifted into high gear, sending it galloping across the Northern Hemisphere—and no one can entirely explain why.
National Centers for Environmental Information puts it this way: World Magnetic Model Out-of-Cycle Release which is to say that the World Magnetic Model is being released a year early due to the speed of change. As to who needs it, there's this:
The military uses the WMM for undersea and aircraft navigation, parachute deployment, and more. Other governmental organizations, such as NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Forest Service, and many more use this technology for surveying and mapping, satellite/antenna tracking, and air traffic management.
For anyone using an old fashioned pocket compass this natural change in *magnetic declination is probably unnoticeable compared with the distortions caused by modern electronics. I tried to use a compass in a rented car roughly a year ago and was lost most of the time due to something under the hood that caused the needle to point toward the front of the car whichever direction it was headed.
Click hyperlink to find the magnetic declination at your location.
*Magnetic declination or variation is the angle on the horizontal plane between magnetic north and true north. This angle varies depending on position on the Earth's surface, and changes over time.
P.S. How soon will be until someone blames this rapid change on humans?
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2:12 PM 2/10/2019
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