Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogebaum. Here, high above the Earth's north pole, solar
Speaker 1: winds whipped through the ion sphere in a gargantuan storm
Speaker 1: that rained electric precipitation. The entire thing happened over several hours,
Speaker 1: and satellites passing over the area were disrupted by the
Speaker 1: unexpected changes in the geomagnetic field. Meanwhile, the world moved
Speaker 1: on below, unaware of the tumultuous events occurring at the
Speaker 1: edge of space. While this sounds like a great setup
Speaker 1: for your next science fiction binge on Netflix, it's a
Speaker 1: real phenomenon, a space hurricane. After hypothesizing that such high
Speaker 1: atmospheric meteorology might be possible, scientists now have proof that
Speaker 1: hurricanes occur in different levels of Earth's atmosphere. As reported
Speaker 1: in the journal Nature Communications in February, scientists observed and
Speaker 1: documented the first phenomenon of its kind, which they dubbed
Speaker 1: a space hurricane. But what exactly is that the space
Speaker 1: hurricanes have likely happened before in the history of our
Speaker 1: planet and will likely occur again, so it's helpful to
Speaker 1: know what causes them and how similar they are to
Speaker 1: the lower atmosphere hurricanes that we know more about. According
Speaker 1: to the research published by a team of international scientists,
Speaker 1: the first documented space hurricane occurred on August high in
Speaker 1: the upper atmosphere. A spiral of plasma stretching more than
Speaker 1: six hundred miles that's a thousand kilometers across, swirled above
Speaker 1: the magnetic north pole for nearly eight hours while it
Speaker 1: was invisible. To humanize weather, satellites were affected and tipped
Speaker 1: researchers off to the activity. It was observed way up
Speaker 1: in the ionosphere was so called because it's the part
Speaker 1: of Earth's atmosphere that's ionized, a meaning it contains electrically
Speaker 1: charged particles. The ionosphere stretches across a few of the
Speaker 1: outermost levels of Earth's atmosphere, and though its boundaries shift
Speaker 1: from day to day and season to season, it's generally
Speaker 1: from around fifty two four hundred miles up that's about
Speaker 1: eighty two six hundred and fifty kilometers. Before the article
Speaker 1: this episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke with
Speaker 1: Brian Latta, an acuather meteorologist who specializes in astronomy and
Speaker 1: space coverage. He explained, like many space weather phenomena, charged
Speaker 1: particles from the Sun interacted with Earth's magnetic field to
Speaker 1: spark the space hurricane. This phenomenon is likely being called
Speaker 1: a hurricane due to the way it spins, similar to
Speaker 1: a tropical cyclone, since it was observed over the North Pole.
Speaker 1: I was a little surprised that they didn't nickname it
Speaker 1: a space vortex to match the viral weather term polar vortex. So,
Speaker 1: considering that they were given a shared name, space and
Speaker 1: Earth hurricanes must be similar right. In fact, they do
Speaker 1: have some aspects in common, but they're also quite different.
Speaker 1: In addition to their shape, both have an eye at
Speaker 1: the center and arm bands of storm activity. Space and
Speaker 1: Earth hurricanes are similar in another important way. They both
Speaker 1: have precipitation. Latta said. Hurricanes that we are familiar with
Speaker 1: have liquid precipitation rain, while space hurricanes have electric precipitation
Speaker 1: that can create stunning aurora. However, the aurora caused by
Speaker 1: the specific space hurricane may have gone unnoticed by people
Speaker 1: on the ground as it occurred during the summer in
Speaker 1: the northern Hemisphere, the worst time of year to look
Speaker 1: for aurora, since the days far outlast the nights. Here's
Speaker 1: hoping the next one will occur during the winter months
Speaker 1: so that we can enjoy the show. The biggest difference
Speaker 1: between the two types of hurricanes is the altitudes at
Speaker 1: which they occur. As I said earlier, space hurricanes can
Speaker 1: be found dozens or hundreds of miles up in the ionosphere.
Speaker 1: In contrast, normal hurrican haynes occur in the troposphere. That's
Speaker 1: where we live. It's the layer of Earth's atmosphere that
Speaker 1: stretches from the ground to just around five to nine
Speaker 1: miles up. That's around eight to fourteen kilometers. The range
Speaker 1: happens because different parts of the troposphere are thicker or
Speaker 1: thinner depending on where in the world you are. It's
Speaker 1: the thinnest at the polls. So the space hurricane was,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot closer to space. It was also
Speaker 1: huge compared to an Earth hurricane, at more than six
Speaker 1: hundred miles wide. That's roughly twice the average diameter of
Speaker 1: hurricanes that happened in the troposphere. So what caused the
Speaker 1: space hurricane. The scientists aren't quite sure yet, but there
Speaker 1: are some theories. The main one concerns the electromagnetic conditions
Speaker 1: in the Sun was at the maximum of its most
Speaker 1: recent eleven year cycle in August was a time of
Speaker 1: quote low solar and otherwise low geomagnetic activity. According to
Speaker 1: the research published in Nature Communications, this low activity in
Speaker 1: the ionosphere was likely similar to hurricane conducive conditions that
Speaker 1: helped create hurricanes on Earth. Hous to Works also spoke
Speaker 1: with ACU weather senior meteorologist and astronomy blogger David Samuel.
Speaker 1: He said, it seems like it occurs when conditions are quiet.
Speaker 1: There was very little geomagnetic activity and solar wind was low.
Speaker 1: This reminds me of hurricanes. Hurricanes need light winds aloft,
Speaker 1: so thunderstorms can form and rotate around a center without
Speaker 1: the strong winds aloft pulling them away from the center.
Speaker 1: Once the center gets established, the thunderstorms become stronger and
Speaker 1: stronger and thus spin faster around the center until strong
Speaker 1: winds aloft pull them apart. So it's likely that the
Speaker 1: right combination of high atmospheric conditions came together to allow
Speaker 1: the space hurricane to form and to dissipate when those
Speaker 1: conditions changed. But Earth hurricanes can cause lack of damage,
Speaker 1: should we fear space hurricanes. According to LATA, space hurricanes
Speaker 1: are mostly harmless, though it's possible we could experience the
Speaker 1: effect of one on Earth. He explained, if strong enough,
Speaker 1: a space hurricane could potentially cause some disruptions on the ground.
Speaker 1: If there are enough charged particles raining down from space,
Speaker 1: in addition to creating aurora, it could disrupt GPS signals,
Speaker 1: radio waves, and in extreme cases, the power grid. However,
Speaker 1: if this event only happens over the polls, then the
Speaker 1: number of power outages would be limited based on the
Speaker 1: sparse population of the polar region. Having discovered this first one,
Speaker 1: scientists will undoubtedly be trying to determine where and how
Speaker 1: often space hurricanes occur, but it's likely that we don't
Speaker 1: need to have too much concern about them compared with
Speaker 1: their earthly counterparts. While scientists can't be sure when the
Speaker 1: next space hurricane will occur, the next solar maximum will
Speaker 1: likely occur in July five. This may create similar conditions
Speaker 1: for another space hurricane. However, the sun cycles are flexible
Speaker 1: and scientists may not become aware of the next space
Speaker 1: hurricane until after it's already happened. Today's episode is based
Speaker 1: on the article scientists detected a space hurricane for the
Speaker 1: first time. What's That? On how Stuff Works dot Com,
Speaker 1: written by Valerie Stymack. Brain Stuff is production by Heart
Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and
Speaker 1: it's produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts, it's my
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