Researchers at the European Space Agency have determined that the Earth's magnetic north pole is drifting southward towards Siberia.

Scientists have been mapping the planet's magnetic field, with some assistance from three satellites, as part of ESA's Swam mission, according to BBC News.

The three satellites are equipped with a number of Earth-studying tools, like magnetometers, which measures the magnetic field's strength and direction.

"I started my career in magnetometry and the accuracy we had then in the laboratories was less than what we can fly in space now," Volker Liebig, the director of Earth observation at ESA, recently said to BBC News. "So what we have on Swarm is fantastic, but we need long time series to understand fully the Earth's magnetic field, and we will get that from this mission."

Results from the missions shows that not only is magnetic north moving, the entire magnet field is weakening. This means Earth is potentially exposed to additional cosmic radiation.

The researchers feel that there is a good chance the magnet cloak could regain its strength in the future.

The latest information released from Swarm suggests that the poles could once again be preparing to trade sides. The flip-flop itself takes "several thousand years" however, according to BBC News.

A study in 2011 said that the shifting poles are influenced by the movement of Earth's tectonic plates.

So far, Swarm satellites have only honed in on the general magnetic field generated by Earth's molten core, according to BBC News.

Scientists expect to study more delicate magnetic fields in the future however, like the field generated by the movement of the ocean, for example.

"These initial results demonstrate the excellent performance of Swarm," said Rune Floberghagen, ESA's Swarm Mission Manager, according to an ESA release. "With unprecedented resolution, the data also exhibit Swarm's capability to map fine-scale features of the magnetic field."

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