COPENHAGEN, Denmark, July 9 (UPI) -- European geophysicists say they've discovered rapid changes in the motion of the Earth's core fluid are affecting the planet's magnetic field.
Physicist Mioara Mandea of the German Research Center for Geoscience and Nils Olsen of Denmark's National Space Institute said they used data delivered by the German satellite CHAMP, Denmark's Orsted satellite and nine years of ground observations to determine what is occurring approximately 1,900 miles beneath the Earth's surface.
Olsen and Mandea say their model for the flow at the top of the Earth's core fits with recent rapid changes in the planet's magnetic field, and is also in agreement with the changes in the length-of-day.
The researchers say the core flow involves rapid variations that have occurred rather suddenly, involving only a few months. They said that is a remarkably short interval compared with the time of the last magnetic field reversal that occurred about 780,000 years ago.
The findings were reported in the May 18 issue of the journal Nature Geoscience.
