For the first time, a hurricane has been detected in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. In 2014, the satellites recorded a huge swirl of plasma that extended into the magnetosphere and lasted for hours before scattering.
Although we have never seen anything like it, its detection suggests that space hurricanes, as they are known, could be a common planetary phenomenon.
“Until now, it was uncertain that even space plasma hurricanes existed, so proving it with such a shocking observation is incredible,” said space environment physicist Mike Lockwood of the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. .
Hurricanes in the Earth’s lower atmosphere are common: powerful, rotating weather systems around a relatively calm center, accompanied by strong winds and rain that can cause damage in a very short time.
Nor are they uncommon in other bodies: Jupiter and Saturn, in particular, are extremely turbulent places, not to mention the plasma tornadoes in full swing in the Sun’s atmosphere.
The new work reveals that space hurricanes are no different from their lower-atmosphere cousins.
The detections were made on August 20, 2014 and were revealed during a retrospective analysis conducted by Shandong University in China. According to the data, the hurricane appeared over the North Pole and extended to a diameter of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles).
It ranged from 110 kilometers to 860 kilometers in altitude and consisted of plasma with multiple spiral arms, rotating counterclockwise at speeds of up to 2,100 meters per second (6,900 feet per second). The center, however, was almost still, as in hurricanes at lower altitudes.
Unlike other hurricanes, however, the space hurricane rained electrons into the ionosphere. This had an impressive effect: a huge cyclone-shaped aurora under the hurricane. It all lasted almost eight hours, depositing large amounts of energy and momentum into the ionosphere.
The conditions were quiet, which was a mystery. A rain of particles charged into the ionosphere by the solar wind is what usually produces bright green auroras at the highest latitudes of the Earth, but the solar conditions of the time were relatively calm. Thus, the team engaged in modeling to determine what caused the plasma balance.
“Tropical storms are associated with large amounts of energy and these space hurricanes must be created by an unusually large and rapid transfer of solar wind energy and charged particles into the Earth’s upper atmosphere,” he explained. Lockwood.
We know that reconnecting magnetic field lines can transfer solar wind energy to the magnetosphere and ionosphere, so the team modeled this process and found that a reconnecting interplanetary magnetic field can produce the features they observed in the space hurricane, even when the solar wind is low. . In fact, low solar wind could be key: it allows for more efficient magnetic reconnection.
It also means that these storms can be quite common.
“Plasma and magnetic fields in the planets’ atmosphere exist throughout the universe, so the findings suggest that space hurricanes should be a widespread phenomenon, ”Lockwood said.
There are also implications for the Earth. Knowing that auroras can be the product of space hurricanes and how they look can help us identify other such storms in the future.
It also shows that even when geomagnetic conditions are relatively calm, space can cause an extreme climate that can affect life on Earth and the sky above.
“This study suggests that there are still intense local geomagnetic disturbances and energy depositions comparable to those of super-storms. This will update our understanding of the solar-magnetosphere-ionosphere winding process in extremely calm geomagnetic conditions.” , said space physicist and first author, Qing-He Zhang of Shandong University.
“In addition, the space hurricane will cause significant space weather effects, such as increased satellite drag, disruptions in high-frequency radio communications, and increased errors in radar location outside the ‘horizon, satellite navigation and communication systems’
The research has been published in Communications on Nature.