Magnetic North Pole

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The Earth's Magnetic North Pole (actually the south pole of the Earth's magnetic field) is the shifting point to which the "north" end of a dipole magnet points. It drifts from 10 to 40 kilometers per year; indeed, affected by charged particles from the sun, it drifts by the day [1], and is not located at Earth's North Terrestrial Pole. It is offset from the axis of Earth's rotation by about 11 degrees^{[citation needed]}.

Magnetic pole positions

North Magnetic Pole [1]	(2001) 81.3° N 110.8° W	(2004 est) 82.3° N 113.4° W	(2005 est) 82.7° N 114.4° W
South Magnetic Pole [2]	(1998) 64.6° S 138.5° E.	(2004 est) 63.5° S 138.0° E

[edit] See also

• Magnetic South Pole
• North Pole#North_Geomagnetic_Pole

[edit] External links

• ucar.edu site
• Canadian site with many useful links
• Map of pole's wandering
• CNN site
• noaa.gov site
• BBC article
• Earth's magnetic field
• NASA "Picture of the day" site