Rahul Rao

3 min read Magnetic field models are crucial to global navigation but have long suffered from discrepancies in the north and south polar regions. European Space Agency Just as early mariners used simple compasses to chart courses across the sea, today’s ships, planes, satellites, and smartphones can rely on Earth’s magnetic field to find their bearings. The difference is that today’s rather more sophisticated compasses have the aid of complex models, like the commonly used