For the first time, a hurricane was discovered in Earth’s upper atmosphere. In 2014, satellites recorded a massive turnover of high-flowing plasma into the magnetosphere that lasted hours before it exploded.
Although we have never seen anything like this before, his discovery shows that space hurricanes, as they are called, could be a common planetary phenomenon.
“Until now, plasma hurricanes were not even certain of space, so this is confirmed by such an astonishing observation,” said space environment physicist Mike Lockwood of Reading University in the UK.
Hurricanes in the Earth’s low-lying atmosphere are common: powerful weather systems, revolving around a relatively calm center, with strong winds and showers of water that can cause major damage in a short period of time.
They are not uncommon on other groups, either: Jupiter and Saturn, in particular, are incredibly turbulent places, not to mention deeply rolling plasma tornadoes in the solar atmosphere.
No space hurricanes, the new work emerges, unlike the lowest cousins in their atmosphere.
The findings were made on August 20, 2014, and were revealed during a retrospective study led by Shandong University in China. According to the data, the hurricane appeared over the North Pole, extending to a diameter of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles).
It ranged from 110 kilometers to 860 kilometers in height, and consisted of plasma with several spiral arms, passing through counterclockwise at speeds of up to 2,100 meters per second (6,900 feet per second). The center, however, was almost still, just like in hurricanes at lower altitudes.
Unlike other hurricanes, however, the space hurricane introduced electricity into the ionosphere. This had an amazing effect: a large aurora, a cyclone shape under the finger. The whole thing lasted nearly eight hours, investing a lot of energy and moving into the ionosphere.
The situation was so quiet, which was a mystery. Water of grains cut into the ionosphere from the solar wind usually produces bright green aurorae at higher latitudes than Earth, but the position of the sun at the time was relatively quiet. So the team turned to modeling to find out what caused the ruckus plasma.
“Tropical storms are associated with a lot of energy, and these space hurricanes have to be created by an unusually large and fast movement of solar wind energy and grains cut into the Earth’s upper atmosphere,” Lockwood explained.
We know that reconnecting magnetic field lines can transfer solar wind energy into the magnetosphere and ionosphere, so the team modeled this process and found that an interconnected magnetic field can reconnect the features they saw in the hurricane of space, even when the solar wind is low. . Of course, low solar wind may be important – that allows more efficient magnetic reconnection.
It also means that such storms can be very common.
“Plasma and magnetic fields in planetary atmospheres are found all over the globe, so the findings suggest that hurricanes should be a widespread phenomenon,” Lockwood said.
The Earth also has an impact. Knowing that aurorae can be the result of space hurricanes, and what those aurorae look like, could help us identify other future storms.
It also shows that even when geomagnetic conditions are relatively quiet, space can eliminate bad weather that affects life on Earth, and the skies above it.
“This study suggests that there is still intense local geomagnetic disturbance and comparable energy deposits during major storms. This will refresh our understanding of the solar-magnetosphere-ionosphere solar coupling process under extremely quiet geomagnetic conditions, “said space physics. and first author, Qing-He Zhang of Shandong University.
“In addition, the spacecraft will lead to significant space weather effects such as increased satellite gravity, disturbances in High Frequency radio communications, and increased errors in overhead radar positioning, satellite navigation and communications systems.”
The research was published in Nature Communication.