Space Hurricane
By Sophia Harris
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If the world couldn’t get any weirder, the past week a space hurricane was spotted near the North Pole.
This is the first time a space Hurricane has ever been seen in the Earth's upper atmosphere. The Hurricane occurred on August 20th 2014, but it was only recently found on March 4th 2021. In August it was not known that the observations made by satellites were in fact a Hurricane. This mass lasted almost eight hours, had many spiral arms and rained electrons instead of water! It was several hundred kilometers above the North Pole.
According to Mike Lockwood, a space scientist at the University of Reading, explained that space hurricanes, as scary as they may sound, seem to be created by huge and rapid transfers of solar wind energy and charged particles into earth’s upper atmosphere.
A Space hurricane is made up of a a mix of solar winds which is high-speed plasma released by the Sun and magnetic field lines. When these winds start to move fast because of the magnetic field lines, they form a shape similar to a terrestrial hurricane. It was said to have occurred in a time of low solar and geomagnetic activity. This is different from hurricanes found on Earth that are created largely due to a tropical disturbance.
Lockwood also states that, “Plasma and magnetic fields in the atmosphere of planets exist throughout the universe, so the findings suggest space hurricanes should be a widespread phenomena.”
The outcome of a space hurricane is much different than the outcome of one on Earth. A hurricane on earth might lead to flooding, broken buildings, homes that were washed away and depleted natural resources. A space hurricane on the other hand has more complicated consequences. For example, it can cause problems in high frequency radio, cause satellite drag, and lead to problems in over-the-horizon radar location, satellite navigation, and many communication systems. These are all essential tools needed in exploring our solar system.
In the past scientists have also spotted hurricanes on Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. They have also noted the existence of “solar tornadoes”. Solar tornadoes are essentially a swarm of solar gasses that swirl violently around. They are located far into the Sun's atmosphere. They can be several times larger than the Earth.
This hurricane poses the question of what else we have missed in the weather of Space. We should invest more in the research and development of these tools.
Resources-
https://www.universetoday.com/150395/earths-atmosphere-can-generate-a-space-hurricane/
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-are-hurricanes-k4.html
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