It basically lifts the sky up. After a 60-year search, NASA has finally discovered Earth's electrical field.
A long-sought hidden force that wraps around Earth has been discovered more than half a century after it was initially proposed.
The field, known as the "polar wind," explains how Earth's atmosphere exits readily and quickly above the north and south poles, and it may have helped shape our planet's sparse upper atmosphere. Researchers believe it is as important to the earth as gravity and the magnetic field. "This field is so important for comprehending the way our planet works—it's been here since it started alongside gravity and magnetism," Glyn Collinson, the chief investigator of Perseverance at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, explained in an agency video. "Despite being fragile, it's extremely significant — it counters gravitation and it essentially lifts the skies up."
The establishment of the field was first proposed more than 60 years ago. Indeed, many satellites flying over Earth's poles in the late 1960s observed a stream of atmospheric particles escaping into space at speeds of light. Researchers understood that sunlight drove particles from the atmosphere to seep into space, "like steam evaporating from a container of water," but the fragments found by this satellites showed no signs of heating.
"There's something had to be pulling these particles out of the atmosphere," Collinson explained in a NASA release. However, identifying the presence of the undetectable and very weak field that dragged the particles out, whose oscillations can only be sensed across hundreds of miles, was beyond the capabilities of technology at the time.
Collinson and his collaborators began developing sensors for the worldwide Endurance sounding skyrocket mission in 2016, and one of the suborbital missiles, carrying eight focused devices, will launch from Norway's Svalbard Rocket's Range in May 2022, only a few thousand miles from the North Pole. That location provided the rockets with an ideal vantage point for studying atmospheric unusual phenomena. "Svalbard is the single rocket range in the entire globe where you can launch rockets through the polar wind to acquire the measurements we needed," research co-author Suzie Imber, a space physicist from the educational institution of Leicester in the United Kingdom, said in a statement.
During the 20-minute flight, Endurance reached a height of approximately 477 miles (768 kilometers) and collected data throughout a 322-mile (518-kilometer) area of the atmosphere. It recorded a brief 0.55 volt change, "almost nothing — it's barely as powerful as a watch battery," according to Collinson. "But that's just an appropriate amount to clarify the polar air." Experts estimate that the field begins about 150 miles (250 kilometers) over the surface, where atoms in the atmosphere divide into electrons that are negatively charged as well as positively charged ions, which are more than 1,800 times stronger than electrons. According to NASA, an electromagnetic field builds to "tether them together," opposing gravity's constant pull while also allowing certain elements to escape into space.
Hydrogen ions, which are prevalent in the Arctic wind, detect an outward force from the field that is 10.6 times higher than gravity, scientists have discovered. "That's sufficient to counter gravity — in fact, it's sufficient to launch them upwards into space at supersonic velocity," research co-author Alex Glocer, program scientist for NASA Goddard's Endurance goal, claimed in an announcement.
The polar wind has also been found to accelerate oxygen ions, which are larger than hydrogen ions. "It's essentially this roller belt, lifting the atmosphere up into space," Collison told the crowd. Because polar wind is caused by dynamics deep beneath Earth, scientists predict it to exist on other worlds, such as Venus and Mars. According to Collinson, additional research into the phenomenon can disclose information about its impact on the evolution of our atmosphere as well as its fingerprints in our seas. "This area is an essential component of the way Planet operates, and now that we've actually measured it, we are able to begin exploring some of these greater and more interesting issues."
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