Further to this interesting subject, the magnetic flux alignment has an affect on the weather and the active fissures of the Tectonic Plates not to mention the the thermal internal radiation that eventually effects the subterranean heating that eventually radiate to the surface. The change in the climate had a lot more to do with the molten blob than a relatively low mass gas like the Earths atmosphere. The great thinkers cant get the Covid-19 modeling right, what would make me think climate modeling is any better? Slight changes in propagation from far south where I live to the Northern Hemisphere is noticeable from 20 years ago.
And if you want to get paranoid and worry about other things than viruses, the earth's magnetic field flips every few hundred thousand years, and it looks like we're about due. See https://www.space.com/43173-earth-magnetic-field-flips-when.html Local fields may form--there's one in the South Atlantic now--with the entire process taking maybe 20,000 years. The whole thing's a bit like predicting sunspots; we just don't have enough data for short-term predictions, though the process definitely occurs. In fact, by reading the magnetic orientations of ancient rocks it helped nail down that the continents move. The loss of the ionosphere would expose life to a lot more radiation. And we could expect lousy DX for a long time!
My telescope polar alignment is remarkably different/away from the magnetic pole. I might be wrong but I have even noticed slight daily variations!!
Fascinating example of ' Change is the only Constant '. As long as it does not move down here G3SEA/KH6
Very true. When I was young backpacking around here and using a compass, the declination was 13 degrees. Now it’s 8 degrees. I got out my old but still very nice Silva compass with mirror sight the other day to check the bearing on an antenna. It wasn’t coming out quite correctly until I realized that the declination setting was still at 13 degrees!
