2012-03-02
post/18606640524
photo 14:52:06
A world map of magnetic field inclination created by the National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA. More from Wikipedia on the magnetic dip. (The strange lines near South Africa are due to the South Atlantic Anomaly, where the Van Allen belt comes closest to the Earth’s surface.)
The green line is the aclinic line, where the magnetic field is balanced between the north and south poles; you could think of it as the magnetic equator. It’s clearly not exactly aligned with the geographic equator. (The south magnetic pole is marked on the map at the far bottom right corner.)
