North Pole

:This is about the geographic meaning of "North Pole." For the cities, see North Pole, Alaska and North Pole, New York.

Geomagnetic North Pole

The Geomagnetic North Pole is the pole of the Earth's geomagnetic field closest to true north. The first-order approximation of the Earth's magnetic field is that of a single magnetic dipole (like a bar magnet), tilted about 11° with respect to Earth's rotation axis and centered at the Earth's core. The residuals form the nondipole field. The Geomagnetic poles are the places where the axis of this dipole intersects the Earth's surface. Because the dipole approximation is far from a perfect fit to the Earth's magnetic field, the magnetic field is not quite vertical at the geomagnetic poles. The locations of true vertical field orientation are the magnetic poles, and these are about 30 degrees of longitude away from the geomagnetic poles.

Related Topics:
Earth - Magnetic field - Dipole

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Like the Magnetic North Pole, the geomagnetic north pole is a south magnetic pole, because it attracts the north pole of a bar magnet. It is the centre of the region in the magnetosphere in which the Aurora Borealis can be seen. Its present location is 78°30' North, 69° West, near Thule in Greenland. The first voyage to this pole was by David Hempleman-Adams in 1992.

Related Topics:
Magnet - Magnetosphere - Aurora Borealis - Thule - Greenland - 1992

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