‘Space hurricane’ captured for first time
While places like Florida are no stranger to hurricanes at ground level, Earth has experienced a 1000kilometre-wide ‘‘space hurricane’’.
That’s what researchers are calling a phenomenon that formed over the North Pole in 2014, captured for the first time by the US Defence Meteorological Satellite Programme. Instead of wind and rain, though, the ‘‘space hurricane’’ was whipping around electrons.
Made up of plasma, the vortex spun counter-clockwise and lasted about eight hours, according to the research compiled by scientists from the University of Reading in England and Shandong University in China. They have now published their
findings in the journal Nature Communications.
‘‘Here, we report a long-lasting space hurricane in the polar ionosphere and magnetosphere during low solar and otherwise low geomagnetic activity,’’ the paper’s abstract reads.
‘‘This hurricane shows strong circular horizontal plasma flow with shears, a nearly zero-flow centre, and a coincident cyclone-shaped aurora caused by strong electron precipitation associated with intense upward magnetic field-aligned currents.’’
The paper said the ‘‘space hurricane’’ fed large amounts of energy and momentum into the ionosphere.
Bursts of solar wind can disrupt the GPS satellite systems that orbit Earth, and this phenomenon is an example of why scientists monitor space weather.
It is the first time the existence of a ‘‘space hurricane’’ has been found. Researchers suggest that they could also be present on other planets across the universe.