| USA TODAY
The hurricane season of 2020 ends after a record 30 storms
After six months and 30 storms, the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record officially ended on November 30th.
USA TODAY
- Until now, it was uncertain that there were even hurricanes in space.
- The spatial hurricane that the research team noticed in the Earth’s ionosphere is turning left.
- The findings suggest that space hurricanes should be a widespread phenomenon.
And now we have space hurricanes to worry about.
For the first time, scientists have seen what they call a ‘space hurricane’ that rotates above the North Pole, according to a new study. The approximately 600 kilometers wide swirling mass of plasma was a few hundred kilometers above the North Pole and, according to the study, “rained” electrons instead of water.
Until now, it was uncertain that hurricanes in space even existed, “to prove it with such conspicuous observation is incredible,” said study co-author Mike Lockwood, a space scientist at the University of Reading. in the UK, said in a statement.
The observations, made by satellites in August 2014, were first discovered during retrospective analyzes by scientists from Shandong University in China.
Authors say further study is needed, especially since these types of geomagnetic activities can disrupt GPS satellites.
The space hurricane spotted by the Earth’s research team in the Earth’s ionosphere rotates to the left (like hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere), has multiple spiral arms and lasts for nearly eight hours before gradually breaking down.
This spatial hurricane looks in many ways like the hurricanes we know below in the earth’s lower atmosphere.
The year in science: A look at all the ways science has thrived in 2020
Tropical storms and hurricanes occur in the lower atmosphere of the earth over hot water such as oceans and gorges. When hot, humid air rises, it creates a low-pressure area near the surface that sucks in the surrounding air, causing extremely strong winds and creating clouds that lead to heavy rain.
“Tropical storms are associated with large amounts of energy, and these hurricanes in space must be created by extraordinarily large and fast transmissions of solar wind energy and charged particles into the earth’s upper atmosphere,” Lockwood said.
Hurricanes like the ones we have here on earth have also been seen in the lower atmospheres of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, while huge solar tornadoes have been seen in the atmosphere of the sun, the University of Reading said in a statement. However, the existence of spatial hurricanes in the upper atmosphere of planets has not been detected before.
February 27: Add declining sperm counts to list of threats to human survival, warns epidemiologist
“Plasma and magnetic fields in the atmosphere of planets exist throughout the universe, so the findings suggest that hurricanes in space must be a widespread phenomenon,” Lockwood said.
In addition, the fact that the space hurricane was present during a period of low geomagnetic activity suggests, according to the study, that it may be more relatively common in our solar system and beyond. “This underscores the importance of improved space weather monitoring, which could disrupt GPS systems,” the University of Reading said in a statement.
The findings were published in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature Communications.