About 41,000 years ago, Earth's magnetic field briefly reversed in what's known as the Rushamp event. During this period, the Earth's magnetic field weakened significantly, reaching only 5% of its current strength, allowing more cosmic rays to penetrate the Earth's atmosphere.
Scientists from the Technical University of Denmark and the German Research Center for Geosciences used data from ESA's Swarm mission, as well as data from other sources, to create an auditory visualization of the Ruskamp event. They mapped the movement of Earth's magnetic field lines during the event and created a stereo version you can experience in the video.
The soundscape was created using recordings of natural sounds like creaking wood and falling rocks, blending them into familiar yet unfamiliar sounds, almost like the voices of aliens in a science fiction movie. The process of using data to convert sounds is similar to composing music from a musical score.
Data from ESA's Swarm constellation is used to better understand how Earth's magnetic field is generated. These satellites measure magnetic signals not only from the Earth's core, but also from the mantle, crust, oceans, and up to the ionosphere and magnetosphere. These data are critical for studying phenomena such as geomagnetic reversals and Earth's internal dynamics.
The sound of the Earth's magnetic field is the first sonified version of the magnetic field produced using Swarm data. It was originally played through a system of 32 speakers set up in a public square in Copenhagen, with each speaker representing changes in the magnetic field in different places around the world over the past 100,000 years.
Compiled from/SciTechDaily