March 5 – About seven years ago, a hurricane came over the North Pole. It was at the height of the Atlantic shinty season, but the eye of this storm did not catch the water, nor did it come to land.
Plasma rather than water churned around an ion-like center in the ionosphere, with “electron leakage” dripping down. It was the first time scientists had ever seen such an event and they detailed their recent findings in a paper.
The almost extraterrestrial event is something researchers have described as a “space hurricane” in an article published last month in Nature Communications after the Qing -He Zhang from Shangdong University led a research group from the School of Space Science and Physics, Institute of Space Sciences in celebrating.
Zhang’s team used holistic observations in the ionosphere and magnetosphere, as well as a 3-D magnetosphere to model the event.
The ionosphere is an upper layer of the Earth’s atmosphere that begins at an altitude of about 50 miles up and extends to a distance of 600 miles above the Earth’s surface.
For comparison, the lowest level of the Earth’s atmosphere, the troposphere, where the weather occurs, extends from sea level up to a height of about 12 miles near the equator and 6 miles up near the poles.
The researchers compare the event to a hurricane based on its “near zero-flow center and strong circular flat plasma flow, shears, electron leakage, and upward FACs,” saying these features are similar. to “ordinary hurricane.”
The space hurricane that scientists saw in 2014 was about 600 miles wide, which, according to the National Weather Service, is about twice the size of normal fingers held by weather forecasters. eye.
In their study, the researchers link hurricanes with strong energy and mass transport, describing the effects of space stress as “a channel of rapid energy transfer from space to the ionosphere and thermosphere.”
AccuWeather Hurricane expert Dan Kottlowski emphasized the name based on how he draws attention to the cyclonic nature of the phenomenon but was less certain about the researchers’ use of the term “hurricane”.
“Researchers are just using the name‘ hurricane ’to draw attention to the cyclonic nature of this phenomenon,” Kottlowski said. “They could be called ‘space vortex’ or even ‘cyclone space’.
“Of course, those two references might make more sense if this is a phenomenon also found in the southern pole regions.”
MetuWeather Senior Astronomer and Blogger David Samuhel noted that certain conditions under which the phenomenon occurred reminded him of tropical events in some ways.
Schematic of space hurricane in the northern polar ionosphere. The auroral space in the shape of a magenta cyclone with thick brown arrows of circular ionospheric flow represents a space hurricane with a light green background showing the descending FACs. Image by Shangdong University
“It seems to happen when situations are quiet,” Samuhel said.
“There was very little geomagnetic activity, [and] the sun’s wind was low. This reminds me of hurricanes, “he said, that” need light winds above “to be able to create them.
By “aloft,” Samuhel refers to the highest 15,000 to 30,000 feet of the troposphere. Strong winds in this high area could slow down storms. At the same time, lighter winds may encourage one.
“Strong winds basically tear a finger apart,” says Samuhel. “It needs light winds above, so storms can turn and rotate around a center without pulling the strong winds up from the center. As soon as the center is established, the hurricanes become stronger and stronger and thus spin faster around the center until there are strong winds. Aloft pull them apart. “
Compared to the space hurricane, the winds may be higher compared to the solar hurricanes, with more active solar winds that may destroy the space hurricanes at a higher rate.
While the most familiar hurricanes are found in the troposphere, the paper notes that the “hurricane space” does not occur outside the atmosphere but in the ionosphere.
This layer is made up of charged grains and responds to the changing magnetic and electrical conditions in space – it is also the same layer where the aurora borealis and aurora australis perform.
Although something called an aurora spinner – a stationary train of two auroras coming together and giving the appearance of a swirl in the skies – usually does not have the same hurricane-like features, the article notes -near.
Whatever the name, the article states that, based on this finding, the surprise could happen to other square groups as well.
“The space hurricane appears to be a universal phenomenon, occurring at other magnetic bodies in the universe (planets and their branches, etc.),” the article states. also important for the interaction between interspecific winds and other solar systems around the world. “
Astronomers have already seen similar events on other planets, such as “hurricanes” on Mars, Saturn and Jupiter, the article says. He even notices solar gases that float deep in the solar atmosphere called “solar tornadoes.”
As to what effect these space hurricanes will have, further studies may be needed to be sure. Samuhel thought they could interfere with GPS satellites, perhaps some radio frequencies and could help trigger auroras, which do not usually occur at times of low geomagnetic activity .
The article argues that the phenomenon would be expected to lead to “significant space weather effects such as increased satellite gravity, disturbances in High Frequency (HR) radio communications and more errors in radar space over surveillance, satellite navigation, and communications systems. “