Scientists Analyze 1997-2025 Satellite Data on Earth's Core Flow After 2010 Pacific Reversal
Updated
Updated · European Space Agency · May 21
Scientists Analyze 1997-2025 Satellite Data on Earth's Core Flow After 2010 Pacific Reversal
3 articles · Updated · European Space Agency · May 21
ESA’s Swarm and CryoSat data, combined with ground observations from 1997 to 2025, have been analyzed in a new study on Earth’s molten outer core.
2,200 km beneath Earth’s surface, that liquid metal flow generates the geomagnetic field, and scientists had long observed it moving mainly westward.
In 2010, the flow unexpectedly reversed beneath the Pacific Ocean and began moving strongly eastward, a shift the new analysis documents but does not yet explain.
The results, published in the Journal Studies of Earth’s Deep Interior, include comparisons of core-flow patterns in 1999 and 2016 to map how the circulation changed over time.
A mysterious reversal deep inside Earth is altering our magnetic field. What does this mean for our technological world?
Earth's molten core suddenly reversed direction. Could this unexplained shift threaten our planet's protective magnetic shield?