Researchers Observe ‘Space Hurricane’ in Earth’s Ionosphere
Hurricanes in the Earth’s low atmosphere are well known; however, disturbances resembling hurricanes had never before been detected in the upper atmosphere.
“Until now, it was uncertain that space plasma hurricanes even existed, so to prove this with such a striking observation is incredible,” said Professor Mike Lockwood, a space scientist in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading.
“Tropical storms are associated with huge amounts of energy, and these space hurricanes must be created by unusually large and rapid transfer of solar wind energy and charged particles into the Earth’s upper atmosphere.”
“Plasma and magnetic fields in the atmosphere of planets exist throughout the Universe, so the findings suggest space hurricanes should be a widespread phenomenon.”
In the study, Professor Lockwood and colleagues analyzed data gathered by four Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites in 2014.
They detected a 1,000-km- (621-mile) wide mass of plasma in the northern polar ionosphere and magnetosphere during low solar and otherwise low geomagnetic activity.
The hurricane was spinning in an anticlockwise direction, had multiple spiral arms, and lasted almost eight hours before gradually breaking down.
“These features indicate that the space hurricane leads to large and rapid deposition of energy and flux into the polar ionosphere during an otherwise extremely quiet geomagnetic condition, suggesting that current geomagnetic activity indicators do not properly represent the dramatic activity within space hurricanes, which are located further poleward than geomagnetic index observatories,” said Professor Qing-He Zhang, a researcher in the Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy and Solar-Terrestrial Environment at the Shandong University’s Institute of Space Sciences.
“This study suggests that there are still existing local intense geomagnetic disturbance and energy depositions which are comparable to that during super storms,” he added.
“This will update our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling process under extremely quiet geomagnetic conditions.”
“In additional, the space hurricane will lead to important space weather effects like increased satellite drag, disturbances in High Frequency (HF) radio communications, and increased errors in over-the-horizon radar location, satellite navigation and communication systems.”