Scientists are discovering the “space hurricane” at the top of the earth

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Scientists have identified a “space hurricane”: a mass of plasma swirling about 620 miles wide in the upper atmosphere over the magnetic north pole.

The hurricane occurred in August 2014, but scientists did not know what had happened until more recently, when an international team of researchers noticed the phenomenon while studying satellite observations from that time period. The discovery, the first of its kind, was published last month in the journal Nature Communications.

“Until now, it was uncertain that even space plasma hurricanes existed, so proving it with such a shocking observation is incredible,” said Mike Lockwood, a space scientist at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom and co-author of the ‘study. in a statement.

The hurricane, which lasted about eight hours, would have been visible to the naked eye, but no one is likely to have seen it because it occurred at such a high latitude, Lockwood told USA Today.

However, an illustration by the lead author of the Qing-He Zhang study at Shandong University in China shows its appearance.

An illustration of what the space hurricane might have been like.


Qing-He Zhang, Shandong University

An illustration of what the space hurricane might have been like.

Larry Lyons, a professor of atmospheric and ocean sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, told NBC News why the space plasma vortex was similar to the hurricanes we know best on Earth.

“Plasma streams were seen circulating, which were like the winds of the space hurricane,” he said. “These flows were stronger at the edge and decreased as it advanced toward the center eye, before catching back on the other side, just like the airflow in a regular hurricane.”

And while a hurricane on earth rained water, the space hurricane rained electrons into the atmosphere.

Changes in space climate can affect things like GPS signals and satellite communications. Researchers suspect that space hurricanes may be relatively common and, so far, have simply not been detected.

Zhang told Vice that his team had already found other cases in satellite data “showing the characteristics of space hurricanes.” The published study only describes one, which referred to him as “the best” in terms of its clarity.

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