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Journal Article

Wandering of the auroral oval 41,000 years ago

Authors

Mukhopadhyay,  Agnit
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/panovska

Panovska,  Sanja
2.3 Geomagnetism, 2.0 Geophysics, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Garvey,  Raven
External Organizations;

Liemohn,  Michael W.
External Organizations;

Ganjushkina,  Natalia
External Organizations;

Brenner,  Austin
External Organizations;

Usoskin,  Ilya
External Organizations;

Balikhin,  Mikhail
External Organizations;

Welling,  Daniel T.
External Organizations;

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Fulltext (public)

5035915.pdf
(Publisher version), 4MB

Supplementary Material (public)
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Citation

Mukhopadhyay, A., Panovska, S., Garvey, R., Liemohn, M. W., Ganjushkina, N., Brenner, A., Usoskin, I., Balikhin, M., Welling, D. T. (2025): Wandering of the auroral oval 41,000 years ago. - Science Advances, 11, 16.
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adq7275


Cite as: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5035915
Abstract
In the recent geological past, Earth’s magnetic field reduced to ~10% of the modern values and the magnetic poles shifted away from the geographic poles, causing the Laschamps geomagnetic excursion, about 41 millennia ago. The excursion lasted ~2000 years, with dipole strength reduction and tilting spanning 300 years. During this period, the geomagnetic field’s multipolarity resembled outer planets, causing rapid magnetospheric changes. To our knowledge, this study presents the first space plasma analysis of the excursion, linking the geomagnetic field, magnetospheric system, and upper atmosphere in sequence using feedback channels for distinct temporal epochs. A three-dimensional reconstruction of Earth’s geospace system shows that these shifts affected auroral regions and open magnetic field lines, causing them to expand and wander toward lower latitudes. These changes likely altered the upper atmosphere’s composition and influenced anthropological progress during that era. Looking through a modern lens, such an event would disrupt contemporary technology, including communications and satellite infrastructure.