The earth's magnetosphere acts as a shield to deflect harmful energies away.
Cosmic ray intensity at Earth's surface would be greater when Earth's magnetic field passed through a zero phase because magnetic shifting is minimal. Fossil evidence suggests that the periods of no protective magnetic field may have been as important in changing life forms as x-rays have been in the famous heredity studies of fruit flies.
Cosmic rays are continuously present in space - regardless of what day (or year) it is. Luckily, we are protected from cosmic rays on the surface of the Earth by the Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field. A small amount of comic rays can still reach the Earth's surface - particularly at higher altitudes.
The magnetic field of Earth is the reason why humans are still around today. It plays the role of attracting the cosmic rays, such as a solar flare for example, and deflects off the surface of the atmosphere. Hence why we have such thing as the aurora borealis or 'Northern Lights'. It shows that activity that the magnetic field is having with the cosmic ray. If we did not have our magnetic field, Earth would have been scorched by a solar flare a long time ago.
On Earth, the intensity of cosmic rays increases with altitude until a maximum where the atmosphere ends; this reflects the atmosphere's shielding effect. Outside Earth cosmic rays intensity is greatest at their source or origin, which seems to be mostly outside the solar system. Although some uncertainty remains, they are believed to be created by supernovae explosions, and possibly by the relativistic jets of quasars or active galactic nuclei.
The Van Allen radiation belts
poles
Cosmic ray intensity at Earth's surface would be greater when Earth's magnetic field passed through a zero phase because magnetic shifting is minimal. Fossil evidence suggests that the periods of no protective magnetic field may have been as important in changing life forms as x-rays have been in the famous heredity studies of fruit flies.
Cosmic ray intensity at Earth's surface would be greater when Earth's magnetic field passed through a zero phase because magnetic shifting is minimal. Fossil evidence suggests that the periods of no protective magnetic field may have been as important in changing life forms as x-rays have been in the famous heredity studies of fruit flies.
Cosmic ray intensity at Earth's surface would be greater when Earth's magnetic field passed through a zero phase because magnetic shifting is minimal. Fossil evidence suggests that the periods of no protective magnetic field may have been as important in changing life forms as x-rays have been in the famous heredity studies of fruit flies.
Cosmic radiation would increase substantially, probably wiping out many life forms.
Cosmic rays are continuously present in space - regardless of what day (or year) it is. Luckily, we are protected from cosmic rays on the surface of the Earth by the Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field. A small amount of comic rays can still reach the Earth's surface - particularly at higher altitudes.
Cosmic ray intensity at Earth's surface would be greater when Earth's magnetic field passed through a zero phase because magnetic shifting is minimal. Fossil evidence suggests that the periods of no protective magnetic field may have been as important in changing life forms as x-rays have been in the famous heredity studies of fruit flies.
The magnetic field of Earth is the reason why humans are still around today. It plays the role of attracting the cosmic rays, such as a solar flare for example, and deflects off the surface of the atmosphere. Hence why we have such thing as the aurora borealis or 'Northern Lights'. It shows that activity that the magnetic field is having with the cosmic ray. If we did not have our magnetic field, Earth would have been scorched by a solar flare a long time ago.
The magnetic field of the Earth protects us from cosmic radiation.
There are two factors which determine the relative level of cosmic radiation at different points on the earth's surface. First, because the earth's magnetic field deflects the charged particles in cosmic radiation toward the magnetic poles, cosmic radiation levels are generally higher the closer you are to a magnetic pole, i.e., the higher your geomagnetic latitude. Second, since the earth's atmosphere provides physical shielding from cosmic radiation, cosmic radiation levels are generally higher at higher altitudes where there is less atmosphere between you and the vacuum of space. As it turns out, the impact of differences in altitude is much greater than the impact of differences in geomagnetic latitude. Because Colorado has a high average elevation, cosmic radiation is generally higher there than at other locations with lower altitudes.
On Earth, the intensity of cosmic rays increases with altitude until a maximum where the atmosphere ends; this reflects the atmosphere's shielding effect. Outside Earth cosmic rays intensity is greatest at their source or origin, which seems to be mostly outside the solar system. Although some uncertainty remains, they are believed to be created by supernovae explosions, and possibly by the relativistic jets of quasars or active galactic nuclei.
The compass needle is then showing to the opposite direction. However not only will this confuse explorers, but birds and animals to. Some animals navigate using the earths magnetic field. BUT you may think life will just die, it won't. Animals and life and survived before so there is no reason it wont. Also the only problem is that it could mess up the magnetic field, and stop the earths magnetic field blocking the suns harmful rays. Many people mistakenly think that the magnetic field protects the surface from cosmic rays, but it is mostly the atmosphere that does that. When the field switches, the magnetic field gets very low, and intense cosmic rays reach the top of the atmosphere (instead of being deflected by the magnetism), but only a few percent increase is measured at the Earth's surface. (At the North Magnetic Pole there is never any shielding, and that is how much stronger the surface cosmic rays are.) Some birds and protozoa that use the magnetic field for navigation would be disoriented. And our compasses would be useless until the field settled down in its reverse direction. The last recorded switch was about 790,000 years ago.