Analysis of observations made by satellites in 2014 has revealed a long-lasting ‘space hurricane’ — a swirling mass of plasma several hundred kilometers above the North Pole, raining electrons instead of water.

Hurricanes in the Earth’s low atmosphere are known, but they had never before been detected in the upper atmosphere.

An international team of scientists led by Shandong University in China analysed observations made by satellites in 2014 to reveal a long-lasting hurricane, resembling those in the lower atmosphere, in the polar ionosphere and magnetosphere with surprisingly large energy and momentum deposition despite otherwise extremely quiet geomagnetic conditions.

The analysis allowed a 3D image to be created of the 1,000km-wide swirling mass of plasma several hundred kilometres above the North Pole, raining electrons instead of water.

Professor Qing-He Zhang, lead author of the research at Shandong University, said: «These features also indicate that the space hurricane leads to large and rapid deposition of energy and flux into the polar ionosphere during an otherwise extremely quiet geomagnetic condition, suggesting that current geomagnetic activity indicators do not properly represent the dramatic activity within space hurricanes, which are located further poleward than geomagnetic index observatories.»

Professor Mike Lockwood, space scientist at the University of Reading, 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.

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