NASA Warns Magnetic Field Anomaly Could Pose Threat to Satellites, Future Space Missions Written 18 August 2020

SlashGear reports that “a mysterious ‘dent’ in Earth’s magnetic field could pose a new threat to satellites and even future space missions, NASA has warned, as the anomaly expands and shifts. Although known to scientists for years now, the South Atlantic Anomaly, or SAA, has more recently been displaying unexpected changes.” NASA said, “As the [Earth’s] core motion changes over time, due to complex geodynamic conditions within the core and at the boundary with the solid mantle up above, the magnetic field fluctuates in space and time too.” One “impact of this fluctuation is the gradual drift of the magnetic poles themselves. Much less known, though, is the SAA. There, the weaker forces in the field allow charged particles from the Sun to come closer to the surface. Indeed, they can be powerful enough to interfere with the computers and sensors aboard satellites that pass through that region.”
Full Story (SlashGear)