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back to article ROBOT SWARM positions itself over EARTH ... to probe our magnetic field

The European Space Agency has successfully deployed its trio of mapping satellites, dubbed Swarm, and is ready to start some serious scanning of the Earth's changing magnetic fields. The Swarm payload was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Northern Russia on Friday evening and has now split into its three constituent …

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  1. cordwainer 1
    Happy

    Four magnetic poles...

    So we'll have to change it to "the Eight Corners of the Earth", then?

    1 0
    1. NomNomNom
      Reply Icon

      Re: Four magnetic poles...

      no each earth day has four simultaneous corners

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      1. squigbobble
        Reply Icon

        Re: Four magnetic poles...

        +1 for not being the only person who remembers timecube :D

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  2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    Interesting for both what it says about the solar wind as well as the Earths magnetic field

    Thumbs up for that.

    Of course what a 4 pole Earth means for the theory of geomagnetic fields is another question.....

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  3. MondoMan
    Pint

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laschamp_event

    Fast, short, and recent!

    0 0
    1. jubtastic1
      Reply Icon
      Big Brother

      There'll be a relaxing 5% field strength during the transition

      Only for 250 years, give or take, nothing to worry about folks, you may have heard all sorts of wild rumours about the solar wind, but let me tell you, It's absolutely fine for you.

      0 1
  4. Scott Broukell
    Stop

    Bloomin' Pols, coming over here and muckin abhart wiv our magnetisms!

    6 0
  5. Andy The Hat Silver badge

    "The mission is going to help scientists understand the strange phenomenon of magnetic-pole shifts that the Earth is currently undergoing."

    ... or the not so strange and quite well theorised magnetic fied fluctuations that the Earth is constantly undergoing ...

    1 0
  6. Arachnoid

    Swarm........

    Since when is three a swarm.............its a nuisance at best :D

    3 0
  7. ian 22
    Joke

    "the satellites are performing beyond expectation"

    What? They had low expectations? Then why launch the blooming things? If the satellites did not meet expectations, then there seems to be a quality control problem.

    But seriously, well done ESA!

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    1. Wzrd1 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: "the satellites are performing beyond expectation"

      "What? They had low expectations?"

      Well, there were those launches that blew up...

      Still, the Russians were shooting rockets into space while the Americans were using rockets with a reverse gear for quite a bit. ;)

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  8. druck Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Magnetic variation twice over.

    Four poles is going to make the compass navigation part of the pilots licence a lot more difficult.

    0 0
    1. Captain DaFt
      Reply Icon

      Re: Magnetic variation twice over.

      I thought it'd make things easier.

      Now you'll not only have a North and South pole, but East and West ones as well.;)

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Will play havoc

    With the London Taxi drivers,

    "I don't go closer-to-the-equator side of the Thames this time of night"

    Also northerners will become southerners, oh the beautiful irony, to see northerners wearing coats...

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  10. Alister

    one small step for a man...

    One giant LEOP for robokind...

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  11. Servman

    Polar explorers.

    I'd best get packing if I want to be remembered as leading the first expedition to the West Pole.

    1 0
  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What about auroras?

    Does this mean that there'd be four sets of 'northern lights' instead of two?

    0 0
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