Tampa Airports Change Compass Marks While North Magnetic Pole Moves Toward Siberia

“We are seeing a decrease in the strength of the Earth's magnetic field,
which is something that we know happens before a full pole reversal,
but so far it's happening at the rate of only 8% decrease per century.”

- Stefan Maus, Ph.D., NOAA Geophysicist, Boulder, Colorado

The Earth's magnetic field is similar to that of a bar magnet tilted 11 degrees from the spin axis of the Earth. Magnetic fields surround electric currents, so we surmise that circulating electric currents in the Earth's molten metallic core are the origin of the magnetic field. A current loop gives a field similar to that of the earth. The magnetic field magnitude measured at the surface of the Earth is about half a Gauss and dips toward the Earth in the northern hemisphere. The magnitude varies over the surface of the Earth in the range 0.3 to 0.6 Gauss. Illustration © by C. R. Nave, Georgia State University.

February 1, 2011 Tampa, Florida and Boulder, Colorado - There have been recent media headlines about Tampa, Florida's International and general aviation airports having to repaint compass markings on their runways. Geophysicists say it's because there is a general westward drift of the Earth's magnetic field in the Western Hemisphere. So for pilot safety, Tampa airports corrected runway compass marks to reflect what compasses actually read now in southern Florida.

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