On Earth, hurricane season doesn’t just happen at ground level. The ionosphere, the upper layer of the atmosphere charged by solar radiation, also contains swirling plasma storms called “space hurricanes.” Scientists first described a space hurricane in 2021: a cyclonic aurora that swirled for hours near Earth’s north magnetic pole, raining electrons, rather than water, into the upper atmosphere.
Now, new research has revealed that hurricanes in a parallel universe also swirl near the South Magnetic Pole.
An analysis of satellite data collected between 2005 and 2016 revealed that 259 space hurricanes formed in the Southern Hemisphere’s ionosphere, astrophysicist Shen Lu of Shandong University in Weihai, China, and his colleagues announced on June 25. Journal of Geophysical Research: AstrophysicsIt is about Average of 23 cases per yearThis is close to the proportion previously estimated for the Northern Hemisphere, and the team identified other symmetries as well: for example, space hurricanes in both hemispheres tend to occur in the summer.
Researchers suspect the storms may be caused by changes in the Earth’s magnetic field caused by solar wind.SN: August 18, 2017A barrage of charged particles raining down from the sun breaks up the magnetic field lines. When they reconnect, the team theorizes, it disturbs the ionized gases in the ionosphere, causing electric currents to flow upward. The currents then begin to bend and rotate, leaving an “eye” in their center. The proposed process is similar to how warm, moist air rises at the center of a tropical cyclone.
