The rare hurricane that risen over the Arctic of the Earth in 2014 was a sudden punch, and it may be more strange than that scientists were thinking first.
This phenomenon, called “Space Hurricane”, has launched intense weather effects that usually appear only during the main solar storms, although the sun is unusually calm on that day, according to a new study.
The report provides the first detailed rhythm analysis for about eight hours, which was It is first known to have happened On August 20, 2014. The researchers found that it disrupts GPS signals, shook the Earth’s magnetic field, and gathered the upper atmosphere with electronic electronic electrons.
“Our study shows that space hurricanes can lead to great effects in the weather in space, even during what is generally seen as very quiet periods,” the author of the study, Shing Lu, a scientist at the Space Science Institute at the University of Shandong University in China, wrote his colleagues in the study, which was published in July in July in July. Space weather magazine.
Surrounding storm in space
The hurricane volume is more than 620 miles (1000 km) in its diameter and is spent on the polar cover, which is the high latitudes area where landThe magnetic field puts solar and cosmic particles in the atmosphere. Like the same name bearing its name in the atmosphere, the spaceclist appeared quietly, or “eye”, and a spiral arms that were clearly visible in the satellite notes. But instead of the wild wind and rain, they raise currents of high -energy electrons in the upper atmosphere.
Although it is invisible to the naked eye, space hurricanes can be detected by satellites and sensitive tools on Earth, thanks to the glowing spiral shape Aurora These storms are produced.
In this case, data from a multiple spacecraft and magnetic stations in Greenland and the Northern Pole showed GPS signal disturbances, magnetic field fluctuations and high electron density-all of which can interfere with satellite and communications and radio transport systems, the scientists explained in the study.
The wealth of measurements allowed researchers to rebuild the storm with unprecedented details, which was not possible in previous decades. Since the late 1960s, researchers have suspected that space hurricanes might exist, so far they were lacking the tools needed to confirm these storms.
“In those days, although there are many spacecraft in space, they had no kind of devices that would need to understand what really happened,” John FosterI told a research scientist at the Haystack Mit’s MIT Observatory who recalled a similar event more than 50 years ago, EOS. “What makes this event really distinctive is a wide range of devices that were available in space to consider the characteristics of this phenomenon.”
Initially, he was considered a rare anomaly, which has helped the 2014 spacecraft since then opened the door for more discoveries. Recent follow -up studies revealed that these storms are not only More frequent than previously thought But it also occurs in both half of the globe – usually during the summer months and may reach 10 times a year.
Despite the potential disorders of satellites and garbage cutting in orbit, space hurricanes Do not pose a threat to life on Earth.