Predicting the future magnetic alignment of a runway

A system for predicting a future magnetic alignment of a runway, the system comprising:

• historical records of a position of the Earth's eccentric geomagnetic axial pole (“ED”);
• and
• a calculating engine configured for:
• extrapolating from the historical records to predict a future location of the ED associated with a future trajectory, expressed in degrees, corresponding to a future azimuth of the ED;
• calculating a difference between a runway trajectory, expressed in degrees, corresponding to a location of an airfield comprising the runway, and the predicted future trajectory, expressed in degrees, of the ED;
• using the calculated difference to derive an estimate of a change in a declination between true north and geomagnetic north at the location of the airfield;
• and
• based, at least in part, on the estimated declination change, predicting a magnetic alignment of the runway at a future time;
• wherein extrapolating comprises:
• for a plurality of historical records:
• calculating a great-circle distance between the South Atlantic Anomaly and the ED;
• using the calculated great-circle distances to calculate migration azimuthal directions and migration distances of the ED;
• based, at least in part, on the historical calculations, extrapolating to predict a future migration azimuthal direction and a future migration distance for the ED;
• calculating a difference between a current magnetic-alignment-based name of the runway and a predicted future magnetic alignment of the runway;
• comparing the calculated difference against a first set threshold;
• and
• if the calculated difference is greater than the first set threshold, then changing the magnetic-alignment-based name of the runway by updating at least one of maps, pilot manuals, flight software, and runway signage.