The mystery of Space Hurricanes: STRANGE solar storm happens nowhere else

While the name ‘space hurricane’ sounds like the name of a badly made science fiction movie, it is real and is one of the strangest space weather phenomena scientists have come across. In fact, it is not even fully solved yet. All researchers know for now is that it exists in a very restricted area within the North Pole and it is a visible form of solar storm that does not occur anywhere else on the Earth. And that’s not all. These space hurricanes are fully capable of causing the same damage to wireless communication and satellites orbiting the planet that usual solar storms do. So, what are they and why are we finding them just now? Read on.

A study was published in the Nature journal last year titled ‘A space hurricane over the Earth’s polar ionosphere’. The researchers claimed to have discovered cyclone-like auroras near the North Pole. These bright lights were contained with a 600 miles diameter around the topmost part of our planet. The cyclone came equipped with multiple arms which rotated counterclockwise and made a 3D funnel shape in the upper atmosphere, which inspired its name. Interestingly, this was the first time in history when anyone truly spotted it in its entirety.

“[Space hurricanes are] occurring where nobody looked and occurring under conditions where nobody thought anything was happening. It’s just a matter of opening your eyes.” Larry Lyons, co-author of the study and a space physicist at UCLA told The Washington Post.

The mystery of space hurricanes

The researchers have revealed that the space hurricanes are, in fact, solar storms that have somehow reached the polar region and, bound by the strong magnetic field of Earth, began spiraling in a cyclonic shape. These hurricanes have been there for a long time, and people on Earth could see it if they looked at the sky from around 80 degrees near the North Pole. The space hurricanes were also visible from space, so the International Space Station could also have observed them.

But as Lyons explained, nobody was looking for them and even when people saw a part of the cyclone’s arm, it just looked like a normal aurora display.

But it is not about making a discovery of a spectacular light show. These solar storms are just as dangerous as the usual ones. They heat up the upper atmosphere, meaning both GPS communication and many radio frequencies would be disrupted if a plane was flying in the polar region. Damage would also come upon the satellites that travel over the poles, if they got caught in the space hurricane.

“From both the communications and the navigation points of view, this looks like it will be something we want to add to our predictions for aircraft flying polar routes. The study of space hurricanes is just beginning,” Zhang, professor at the Institute of Space Science and Physics in China told The Washington Post.