It was thought to exist more than 50 years ago, but now it has been found. This is a big step forward in Earth science. This strange force has been around since the planet was formed.
It has been there along with gravity and magnetism, shaping Earth’s behavior in ways that no one has ever understood.
links between Earth’s systems
It had been thought for a long time that this was a lost piece of natural phenomena, but it had not been found until now.
Its discovery connects theoretical physics to what can be seen in the real world, leading to new ideas and a reevaluation of models that were already thought to be correct.
This newly proven force suggests that Earth’s systems are more deeply connected, revealing mysteries that we still do not fully understand.
The “polar wind” field describes how Earth’s atmosphere can quickly and easily leave above the north and south poles.
It is likely that this field has helped shape Earth’s thin upper atmosphere. Scientists have shown that it is just as important to Earth as gravity and the magnetic field.
In a video released by NASA, Glyn Collinson, the project’s lead scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said, “This field is so fundamental to understanding how our planet works—it is been here since the beginning, along with gravity and magnetism.” “Although it is weak, it is still very important—it fights gravity and basically lifts the skies up—.”
The First Theory
It was first thought that the field might be there more than 60 years ago. In fact, satellites flying over Earth’s poles in the late 1960s found a stream of particles leaving the atmosphere at speeds faster than sound. Scientists knew that small pieces of matter in the atmosphere let sunshine into space.
“These particles had to be being pulled out of the air by something,” Collinson said in a NASA report. But back then, technology was not even good enough to find the field that drew the particles out, because it is invisible and very weak.
Developing Sensor for the Mission
Collinson and his colleagues began making sensors for the international Endurance sounding rocket mission in 2016.
In May 2022, one of the suborbital rockets filled with eight specialized instruments took off from Norway’s Svalbard Rocket Range, which is only a few hundred miles from the North Pole. That spot gave the rockets a great starting point to study unusual things happening in the atmosphere.
This is the only place in the world where you can fly through the polar wind and get the readings we needed, said Suzie Imber, a space physicist from the University of Leicester in the U.K. and co-author of the study.
During the 20-minute flight, Endurance was able to reach an altitude of almost 477 miles (768 km) and gather data over an area of the sky that is 322 miles (518 km) across.
It only showed a 0.55-volt change, which Collinson called “nearly nothing” and “about as strong as a watch battery.” “However, that amount is just right to explain the polar wind.”
The Electric Charge
Scientists think the field starts about 150 miles (250 km) above the Earth’s surface, where atoms are separated into negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions, which are over 1,800 times heavier than electrons.
Because they have different electric charges, an electric field forms to “tether” them together. This field counteracts gravity’s constant pull and lets many particles escape into space, as stated by NASA.
It was found that hydrogen ions feel a push from the field that is 10.6 times stronger than gravity.
Not only hydrogen ions but also oxygen ions, which are heavier, were found to be moving faster because of the polar wind. Collison said, “It is like this conveyor belt pulling the air up into space.”
Scientists think that polar wind will be present on other worlds, like Venus and Mars, since it is caused by changes deep inside Earth.
Collinson said that looking into the event in more depth could give clues about how it affected the evolution of our atmosphere and leave marks in our oceans as well.