How is Neptune’s magnetic field tilted compared with its rotation axis?

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Clouds in Neptune's atmosphere — Neptune A photograph of clouds in Neptune's atmosphere, taken by Voyager 2 in August 1989. The view is from below the planet's equator, and north is up. The Great Dark Spot (center left) is 13,000 km (8,100 miles)—about the diameter of Earth—in its longer dimension. Accompanying it are bright, wispy clouds thought to comprise methane ice crystals. At higher southern latitudes lies a smaller, eye-shaped dark spot with a light core (bottom left). Just above that spot is a bright cloud dubbed Scooter. Each of these cloud features was seen to travel eastward but at a different rate, the Great Dark Spot moving the slowest.

Neptune’s magnetic field is significantly tilted from its rotation axis by approximately 47°.1

Unlike the magnetic fields of Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, which are relatively well-centered and aligned within about 12° of their respective rotation axes, Neptune’s field is highly unusual. In addition to this extreme tilt, the field is not well-centered; it is offset by 55 percent of the planet's radius, placing the center of the field closer to the cloud tops than to the planetary center. These unique characteristics suggest that the magnetic field may be generated by processes occurring within the upper layers of the planet's interior rather than deep within its core.1