Lately, Earth’s magnetic field has been quiet. Very quiet. The Sun is in the pits of the deepest Solar Minimum in more than a century. Geomagnetic storms just aren’t happening (spaceweather.com).

 

“That’s why I was so surprised on June 23rd when my instruments picked up a magnetic anomaly,” reports Stuart Green, who operates a research-grade magnetometer in his backyard in Preston UK.

“For more than 30 minutes, the local magnetic field oscillated like a sine wave,” says Green:

Green quickly checked solar wind data from NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite.

“There was nothing–no uptick in the solar wind speed or other factors that might explain the disturbance,” he says.

And he wasn’t the only one who noticed.

In the Lofoten islands of Norway, Rob Stammes detected a similar anomaly on his magnetometer:

“It was remarkable,” says Stammes.

“Our magnetic field swung back and forth by about 1/3rd of a degree. I also detected ground currents with the same 10 minute period.”

So what happened?

Space physicists call this phenomenon a “pulsation continuous” or “Pc” for short, explains Dr Tony Phillips at spaceweather.com.

Imagine blowing across a piece of paper, making it flutter with your breath. Solar wind can have a similar effect on magnetic fields. Pc waves are essentially flutters propagating down the flanks of Earth’s magnetosphere excited by the breath of the sun. During more active phases of the solar cycle, these flutters are easily lost in the noise of rambunctious geomagnetic activity. But during the extreme quiet of Solar Minimum, such waves can make themselves “heard” like a pin dropping in an silent room.

Earth’s magnetic field was so quiet on June 23rd, the ripple was heard all around the world:

With Solar Minimum in full swing, there’s never been a better time to study these waves. Keep quiet … and stay tuned to spaceweather.com for more.

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Grand Solar Minimum + Pole Shift