Strange shapes detected in Earth's upper atmosphere: ScienceAlert

NASA scientists have discovered something resembling alphabet soup in ionospherea portion of Earth's atmosphere located about 48-965 kilometers (30-600 miles) above our heads – and the discovery could help improve space weather forecasts and radio communications.

Such forms have been discovered before, but Global Notes on Limbs and Disc The GOLD imaging tool used here gives us our best look at it yet – revealing strange X and C shapes that appear at unexpected times and in some surprising places.

The ionosphere becomes electrically charged during the day when sunlight hits it, and this creates plasma beams of charged particles that are further affected by the Earth's magnetic field. The peaks and bubbles of plasma form the shapes now observed.

Previous studies Merged peaks have been shown to form X-shaped peaks after solar storms and large volcanic eruptions, but the data in this new study reveal that they can form in so-called “quiet times” as well, suggesting more local factors are at play.

Computer models suggest that low atmospheric conditions may pull the plasma downward.

“Previous reports of mergers only occurred during geomagnetically disturbed conditions,” He says Fazlul Laskar, an ionospheric physicist at the University of Colorado.

“It's an unexpected feature during geomagnetically quiet conditions.”

Another discovery that has baffled scientists is the appearance C-shaped And C-shaped reverse Bubbles in plasma. These shapes are thought to be created by the wind on the ground, just as wind directions affect how a tree leans.

But gold I have spotted These cesium clouds formed surprisingly close to each other – sometimes as far away as 634 kilometers (400 miles) – and again this points to more local factors being involved, whether it be wind shear, a tornado, or something else.

For now, tight clusters of C-forms appear to be relatively rare, with GOLD only detecting two so far. However, researchers are keen to investigate them further, and find out why they appear in the ionosphere.

“At this close, the two oppositely shaped plasma bubbles had never been considered, and had never been imaged.” He says Ionospheric physicist Deepak Karan of the University of Colorado.

Plasma in the ionosphere is essential for radio waves to be able to travel long distances, and discoveries in this area are improving our understanding of how radio and GPS work.

Ionospheric disturbances such as those observed here can have an impact on important communications and navigation infrastructure.

This study and the GOLD data give us another example of how improving technology and innovations in scientific research can help us understand more about the Earth and the universe around it – even as they constantly change and evolve.

“The fact that we have very different shapes of bubbles close together tells us that the dynamics of the atmosphere are more complex than we thought.” He says Astrophysicist Jeffrey Klinzing of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, who was not directly involved in the study.

The research was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.