Hurricanes are most common in the Earth's lower atmosphere, and are represented in strong climatic conditions that revolve around a relatively calm axis, accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain, and they can cause enormous damage in a very short time.

It is also common in other planets as well, as the planets of Jupiter and Saturn - in particular - are very turbulent planets, not to mention the roar of plasma hurricanes in the depths of the Sun's atmosphere.

However, for the first time, an international team detected a hurricane in Earth's upper atmosphere, and the team published the results of its study in Nature Communications.

Their study indicates that in 2014 satellites recorded a flood of plasma stretching high in the Earth's magnetosphere that lasted for hours before disappearing.

Although we've never seen anything like this before, its observation indicates that so-called space hurricanes could be a common planetary phenomenon.

An illustration based on satellite monitoring data from the first confirmed case of a space hurricane (foreign press)

New views

In the press release issued by the university on March 1, Mike Lockwood, a space environmental physicist at the University of Reading in Britain, said in a press release issued by the university on March 1, "Until now, it has not been certain that there are space tornadoes of plasma, so monitoring them is unbelievable." ".

New observations reveal that space hurricanes are no different from those in the lower atmosphere.

The previous discoveries were made in 2014 through a reference analysis led by Shandong University of China.

According to the data at the time, the hurricane appeared over the north pole of the Earth and extended a diameter of 1,000 km, and its height ranged from 110 km to 860 km.

It consisted of plasma with multiple vortices, rotating counterclockwise at speeds of 2,100 meters per second, yet the axis was nearly stationary, just as it is in tornadoes at lower altitudes.

And unlike other hurricanes, the space cyclone pumped electrons into the ionosphere, and this had an amazing effect, a huge aurora in the form of a whirlwind under the hurricane, and this phenomenon lasted for about 8 hours, and led to the accumulation of huge amounts of energy and activity in the ionosphere.

The calm solar winds may be the cause of hurricanes in Earth's upper atmosphere (the island)

Modeling use

Conditions were otherwise calm, which posed a mystery, as the fall of charged particles into the ionosphere from the solar wind is what usually produces a glowing green aurora at the North Pole, but the solar conditions at that time were relatively calm, so the team resorted to modeling to determine The cause of plasma disturbance.

As Lockwood explained in the statement, "Tropical storms are associated with enormous amounts of energy, and these space hurricanes must be created by an unusually large and rapid transition of solar wind energy and charged particles into the Earth's upper atmosphere."

We know that magnetic reconnection can transfer the energy of the solar wind to the magnetosphere and ionosphere, so the team modeled this process and found that magnetic reconnection between planets could produce the properties they observed in a space hurricane, even when the solar wind is calm.

In fact, a calm solar wind may be the cause, as it allows for more efficient magnetic reconnection, which also means that such storms may be very common.

"Plasma and magnetic fields in planets' atmospheres are found throughout the universe, so the results indicate that space hurricanes should be a widespread phenomenon," Lockwood says.

Aurora Borealis could be a product of space hurricanes (Al Jazeera)

Other connotations

There are indications in the research results that have to do with Earth as well. Knowing that auroras could be a product of space hurricanes, and what these auroras look like, can help us identify other similar storms in the future.

These evidence also show that even when geomagnetic conditions are relatively calm, space can wage severe weather, which can affect life on Earth and its height.

"According to the study, there is still a strong disturbance in the Earth's magnetic field and an accumulation of energy similar to that that occurs during superstorms," ​​said a space physicist and the first researcher in the study, "Cheng He Shang" of Shandong University, in the report published by the Eurek Alert website. It will advance our understanding of the coupling process of the solar wind, the magnetosphere, and the ionosphere, under very quiet geomagnetic conditions.

"In addition, a space hurricane will lead to important climate impacts such as an increase in the occurrence of a decrease in the satellite's orbit, disturbances in high-frequency radio communications, and an increase in errors in the Over the Horizon Radar and navigation and communication systems," he added. Via satellite. "