Here's a gif from a 1995 supercomputer simulation of the reversal process - https://imgur.com/a/jgpZZBF "The tubes represent magnetic field lines, blue when the field points towards the center and yellow when away."

Original source: https://www.psc.edu/science/glatzmaier.html It took them a year of computing on a CRAY C90 and 2000 hours of processing.

Closer to fading out and back in.

Does this mean anything for the protection the planet receives from cosmic rays or solar wind?

Indeed. Some people believe these “unshielded” periods might had some influence on the evolution of the species. Without those, the rate of change is just not enough to get to humans...

Definitely

https://m.phys.org/news/2012-11-cosmic-rays-reveal-event-ear...

I'm not contesting but merely interested in references.