The diagram shows the magnetic meridians of the Earth's magnetic field. It is centered on the point at latitude 50° and longitude 10°. The magnetic meridians (not to be confused with magnetic field lines) follow the directions shown by a magnetic compass, that is, they follow the direction of the horizontal component of the field lines in the vicinity of the Earth's surface and thus show the shape of the field. The angle between the magnetic meridians (red) and the geographic meridians (blue, running precisely north-south) is the magnetic declination. The diagram demonstrates the irregularities of the Earth's magnetic field and the fact that in general compasses point neither towards the geographic north pole nor towards the magnetic north pole. The magnetic field was computed using the coefficients of the International Geomagnetic Reference Field for the epoch 2010.