Typical hurricanes are easy to spot on satellite images: swirling clouds surround a calm eye. These storms usually form in the lowest layer of the atmosphere, closer to the Earth’s surface, and cause heavy rains and high winds.
But according to a recent study, space hurricanes are totally different beasts.
The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, describes the first space hurricane ever spotted. Satellites observed it in August 2014 – a swirling mass with a calm center more than 200 km above the North Pole.
While regular hurricanes stir the air, this space hurricane was a vortex of plasma, a type of super hot, charged gas that can be found throughout the solar system. And instead of rain, this storm brought electron showers.
“Until now, it was uncertain whether space plasma hurricanes even existed, so proving it with such a vivid sighting is incredible,” said Michael Lockwood, space scientist at the University of Reading and co-author of the new study a press release.
The space hurricane was over 620 miles wide and was high in the sky – it formed in the ionospheric layer, between 50 and 600 miles high. Lockwood and his co-authors used satellite data to create a 3D model of the storm.
Space hurricanes could wreak havoc on satellites
The space hurricane lasted eight hours, swirling counterclockwise. It had several spiral arms sticking out of its center, the researchers said, much like a spiral galaxy.
The spiral galaxy NGC 1566, photographed by NASA’s Hubble Telescope.
ESA / Hubble and NASA
By plugging the satellite data into a computer model, Lockwood and his colleagues were able to reproduce the storm and understand what caused it. The results showed that charged particles emitted from the sun’s upper atmosphere, the corona, were to blame.
This constant flow of solar particles and coronary plasma is known as the solar wind; it travels at around 1 million miles per hour.
“These space hurricanes must be created by unusually large and rapid transfers of solar wind energy and charged particles through Earth’s upper atmosphere,” Lockwood said.
When the solar wind reaches the Earth, it meets the magnetic field of the planet. The Earth has such a field because of the swirling liquid iron and nickel in its outer core, which gives rise to electric currents. The resulting magnetosphere shields the planet from deadly radiation from the sun but also retains a tiny layer of plasma from this solar wind.
The Earth’s magnetic field protects the planet from solar radiation.
NASA Goddard / Bailee DesRocher
As a rule, solar winds glance over this protective sheath. But sometimes the incoming charged particles and the plasma interact either with the trapped plasma or with the electric currents generating the field. Such interactions create disturbances in the magnetosphere.
The 2014 space hurricane was one of those disruptions.
In particular, the study’s authors suggest that an interaction between the Earth’s magnetic field and pieces of the sun’s magnetic field – carried by the solar wind – contributed to the storm’s formation.
Usually, magnetic fields do not mix. But if they come close, parts of the fields can realign and sometimes even merge – forming a new pattern of magnetic energy. This is probably what happened on the day of the space storm: an influx of solar wind energy formed a new pattern above the Earth’s magnetic north pole.
Once formed, the storm acted as a channel from space to Earth’s atmosphere – channeling electrons beyond the planet’s armor.
This shower of particles could have wreaked havoc on our high-frequency radio communications, our radar detection systems or our satellite technology, according to the study’s authors. This is because charged solar particles that seep through Earth’s magnetic field are known to cause malfunctions in computers and circuitry on satellites and the International Space Station. Fortunately in this case, no problem was observed.
Other planets could also have space hurricanes
An illustration of Jupiter’s magnetic field, part of the American Natural History Museum’s planetarium exhibit, “Worlds Beyond Earth.”
Aylin Woodward / Business Insider
Earth is not the only planet to experience hurricanes: similar weather conditions occur on Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter. But this is the first time that scientists have spotted a hurricane in the upper atmosphere of any planet in the solar system.
Lockwood believes, however, that any planet or moon with a magnetosphere could experience a space hurricane. All the planets in our solar system except Venus and Mars have them.
“Plasma and magnetic fields in the atmosphere of planets exist throughout the universe, so the findings suggest space hurricanes should be widespread phenomena,” he said.
