Planet's erratic magnetic field forces emergency update to global navigation system

[Yonnie3]

1. Smartphones use GPS for navigation, not a compass

http://fortune.com/2019/01/11/earth-magnetic-north-pole-shifts-forcing-update/

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The previous model of the magnetic field was released in 2015 and updates have been slated for 5-year intervals. However, the changes are massive enough for military and civilian navigation—mostly in the Arctic Ocean—that the latest revision had to appear in 2019. A surge in 2016 happened just after the last model was set, making the update more critical four years out.

This update doesn’t affect GPS receivers, which don’t rely on the magnetic north pole. A receiver instead picks up signals from multiple satellites for which the exact position in orbit is known, and use trilateration (the intersection of their signals) to determine a location. However, satellite orbits are optimized for reception in the most-populated parts of the world, and other factors reduce GPS accuracy and reception in the Arctic.
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