For the first time, a hurricane has been detected in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Although we’ve never seen anything like this before, its detection suggests that space hurricanes, as they are known, could be a common planetary phenomenon: powerful, rotating weather systems around a relatively calm centre that can cause vast amounts of damage in a very short time.
Space hurricanes are not dissimilar to lower atmosphere hurricanes
In 2014, a space hurricane rained electrons into the ionosphere, producing a cyclone-shaped aurora below the hurricane
- The whole thing lasted nearly eight hours, depositing vast amounts of energy and momentum into the atmosphere
Potential Implications
A reconnecting interplanetary magnetic field can produce features they observed in the space hurricane, even when the solar wind is low
- Low solar wind might be key – it allows for more efficient magnetic reconnection
- Implications for Earth
- Knowing that aurorae can be the product of space hurricanes could help us identify other such storms in the future
Geomagnetic disturbances during quiet periods
The study suggests that there are still existing local intense geomagnetic disturbance and energy depositions which are comparable to that during super storms.
- This will update our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling process even under extremely quiet conditions.
