For The First Time, A ’Space Hurricane’ Has Been Detected Over The North Pole
▻https://www.sciencealert.com/for-the-first-time-a-plasma-hurricane-has-been-detected-in-space
Space hurricanes, the new work reveals, are not dissimilar to their lower atmosphere cousins.
The detections were made on 20 August 2014, and revealed during a retrospective analysis led by Shandong University in China. According to the data, the hurricane appeared over the North Pole, extending to a diameter of 1,000 kilometres (621 miles).
It reached from 110 kilometres to 860 kilometres in altitude, and consisted of plasma with multiple spiral arms, swirling in an anticlockwise direction at speeds up to 2,100 metres per second (6,900 feet per second). The centre, however, was almost still, just like in hurricanes at lower altitudes.
Unlike other hurricanes, however, the space hurricane rained electrons into the ionosphere. This had a stunning effect: a huge, cyclone-shaped aurora below the hurricane. The whole thing lasted nearly eight hours, depositing vast amounts of energy and momentum into the ionosphere.
Conditions were otherwise quiet, which posed a mystery. A rain of charged particles into the ionosphere from the solar wind is what usually produces glowing green aurorae at Earth’s higher latitudes, but solar conditions at the time were relatively quiet. So the team turned to modelling to determine what caused the plasma ruckus.
