Variation is the difference between true north and magnetic north. When you navigate by compass, you need to know this difference, because the compass follows the Earth's magnetic field rather than pointing to the geographic North Pole.
Variation is also called magnetic declination. If the variation is easterly, magnetic north lies east of true north. If it is westerly, magnetic north lies west of true north.
This tool does not use a full WMM calculation, but a lightweight model.
The model combines two parts:
1. A regional fit calibrated for Denmark, which gives more realistic values in Danish and nearby waters.
2. A global fallback model, used when the position is further away from Denmark.
The closer the position is to Danish waters, the more weight the regional model gets.
Click on the map to find the variation
The table below shows the estimated variation for 20 places in Northern Europe, calculated with the same model as in the course table. Aarhus is included as a reference.
| Place | Latitude | Longitude | Variation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aarhus | 56,1629° | 10,2039° | 4,2° E |
| Copenhagen | 55,6761° | 12,5683° | 4,6° E |
| Aalborg | 57,0488° | 9,9217° | 4,1° E |
| Esbjerg | 55,4765° | 8,4594° | 4,1° E |
| Oslo | 59,9139° | 10,7522° | 5,0° E |
| Bergen | 60,3913° | 5,3221° | 3,5° E |
| Stavanger | 58,9700° | 5,7331° | 3,5° E |
| Gothenburg | 57,7089° | 11,9746° | 4,2° E |
| Stockholm | 59,3293° | 18,0686° | 7,1° E |
| Malmö | 55,6050° | 13,0038° | 4,6° E |
| Helsinki | 60,1699° | 24,9384° | 9,3° E |
| Turku | 60,4518° | 22,2666° | 8,5° E |
| Tallinn | 59,4370° | 24,7536° | 9,1° E |
| Riga | 56,9496° | 24,1052° | 8,6° E |
| Klaipėda | 55,7033° | 21,1443° | 7,6° E |
| Hamburg | 53,5511° | 9,9937° | 4,2° E |
| Amsterdam | 52,3676° | 4,9041° | 2,5° E |
| Edinburgh | 55,9533° | -3,1883° | 0,5° E |
| Aberdeen | 57,1497° | -2,0943° | 1,0° E |
| Reykjavík | 64,1466° | -21,9426° | 4,0° W |