On November 22, 2013, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the three satellites of its Swarm mission in Russia, which will map the Earth’s magnetic field for four years in order to help scientists understand how the field is generated and why it appears to be weakening. The intensity of the magnetic field is variable and according to researchers, has diminished 15% over the past two centuries. “In some local areas, such as in the South Atlantic, the field has gone down 10% in just the last 20 years,” Eigil Friis-Christensen, lead mission researcher, told the BBC News. The mission will measure the magnetic signals emitted by the Earth’s core, mantle, crust, oceans, ionosphere and magnetosphere and begin to transmit data in February 2014. The satellite technology was developed in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency.
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