Instruction Manual
20220653 / Rev. C 19
* Magnetic dip
The Earth’s magnetic field can be decomposed into a horizontal
and a vertical component. The horizontal component gives
directional information, but the vertical provides no useful
heading information.
Study the simplified presentation of Earth’s magnetic field on
Figure 4-2. When moving towards the poles, the field lines are
no longer parallel to earth’s surface, as they are at equator.
Hence, the horizontal component is decreasing while the vertical
component is increasing.
The angle between the tangent to the field lines and the tangent
to earth’s surface gives the magnetic dip angle, i.e. the dip angle
is 0 degrees at equator and 90 degrees at the poles.
In Egersund, Norway (latitude 58 deg. N) the dip angle is about
67 degrees. In other words, the horizontal component is not more
than 1/3 of the vertical component.
N
S
EW
Dip angle
Figure 4-2 Magnetic dip
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