A space hurricane of plasma which raged hundreds of miles above Earth’s magnetic North Pole for almost 8 hours on August 20, 2014, has been detected for the first time. 

According to a study published in the journal Nature Communications on February 22, scientists have been successful in detecting the 1000 km wide hurricane in Earth’s upper atmosphere. 

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The phenomenon has been termed “space hurricane” by them. Plasma is ionized gas found in the Earth’s atmosphere and all across the Solar System. 

Invisible to the naked eye, the hurricane was made up of fast-flying solar wind and a complicated compound of magnetic field lines. Captured by four weather satellites passing over the North Pole, a formation similar to the terrestrial hurricane was observed. 

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Shaped like a funnel that had a quite “eye” at its center, the space hurricane was surrounded by several counterclockwise-spinning spiral arms of plasma. Instead of raining water, the space hurricane rained electrons directly into Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Mike Lockwood, a space scientist at the University of Reading, UK and co-author of the study said, “Until now, it was uncertain that space plasma hurricanes even existed, so to prove this with such a striking observation is incredible.”

“Tropical storms are associated with huge amounts of energy, and these space hurricanes must be created by unusually large and rapid transfer of solar wind energy and charged particles into the Earth’s upper atmosphere,” he added. 

The researchers have hypothesized that the formation is a result of a complex interaction between incoming solar wind (high-speed gales of plasma periodically released by the sun) and the magnetic field over the North Pole using a 3D model of the hurricane. 

Lockwood said, “Plasma and magnetic fields in the atmosphere of planets exist throughout the universe, so the findings suggest space hurricanes should be a widespread phenomena.”

This phenomenon poses little threat to Earth but can interfere with satellites or disrupt radio signals.