Scientists discover ‘space hurricane’ above Earth

Scientists have identified a “space hurricane” – a swirling mass of plasma about 620 miles wide in the upper atmosphere above the magnetic North Pole.

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

“Until now it was uncertain whether space plasma hurricanes even existed, so proving it with such a vivid sighting is incredible,” said Mike Lockwood, space scientist at the University of Reading in the UK and co. -author of the study. in a report.

The hurricane, which lasted about eight hours, would have been visible to the naked eye, but anyone is unlikely to have seen it because it occurred at such a high latitude, Lockwood told USA Today.

However, an illustration by lead author of the study, Qing-He Zhang, of Shandong University of China, shows what it might have looked like.

Larry Lyons, professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, told NBC News why the space plasma vortex is similar to hurricanes we’re more familiar with on Earth.

“You could see streams of plasma going around, which were like space hurricane winds,” he said. “These flows were strongest at the edge and diminished as you moved towards the eye in the center, before resuming on the other side, just like the flow of air in a regular hurricane.”

And while a hurricane at the edge of the earth rains water, the space hurricane has rained electrons into the atmosphere.

Changes in space weather can affect things like GPS signals and satellite communications. Researchers suspect space hurricanes could be relatively common and just haven’t been detected – until now.

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