Analysis of observations made by satellites in 2014 has revealed a long-lasting ‘space hurricane’ – a swirling mass of plasma several hundred kilometers above the North Pole, raining electrons instead of water.
Hurricanes in the Earth’s low atmosphere are known, but they had never before been detected in the upper atmosphere.
An international team of scientists led by Shandong University in China analysed observations made by satellites in 2014 to reveal a long-lasting hurricane, resembling those in the lower atmosphere, in the polar ionosphere and magnetosphere with surprisingly large energy and momentum deposition despite otherwise extremely quiet geomagnetic conditions.
The analysis allowed a 3D image to be created of the 1,000km-wide swirling mass of plasma several hundre...
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