This page says that if there were no magnetic field, the atmosphere would absorb the radiation anyway. (I vote for this, but I'd like to see more info.) http://www.sciencebits.com/NotReallyAProtection
These two pages say that the magnetic field provides protection: http://www.windows2universe.org/glossary/plasmaspheric_gain.... http://www.askamathematician.com/2014/07/q-how-does-earths-m...
> During this change the strength of the magnetic field dropped to 5% of its present strength.
> The magnetic field will not vanish completely, but many poles might form chaotically in different places during reversal, until it stabilizes again.[
Instead they look at the sky and learn the star patterns as baby birds and use the observed pattern for navigation.
It is possible that the Van Allen radiation belts would vanish and reform in a different configuration. That process might damage satellites.
A big chunk of ozone would get 'zapped'. The reason there are holes in the ozone layer at the poles (human cfc's not withstanding) is that highly charged particles can break it down[1].
[1] http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050228/full/news050228-12.ht...