Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology working with scientists from NASA have published a study looking at how a plasma plume surrounding the Earth protects us from solar storm activity. The magnetic field of the sun can cause geomagnetic storms when it collides with the magnetic field of the Earth, but the plasma reportedly keeps us safe during what is known as a magnetic reconnection.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology working with scientists from NASA have published a study looking at how a plasma plume surrounding the Earth protects us from solar storm activity.
When the Sun’s magnetic field collides with that of Earth’s during an event known as a magnetic reconnection, violent space weather results, but the plasma plume helps to shield our planet from the effects.
The scientists used three of NASA’s in-orbit spacecraft to study a solar storm and compared measurements to those taken from Earth’s surface.
They observed a plasma plume in the magnetic field of our planet called the plasmasphere which extends from 29 thousand kilometers above the ionosphere.
Lead author of the study Doctor Brian Walsh from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre is quoted as saying: “We identified a plasmaspheric plume, an outward extension of the Earth's atmosphere, which met an incoming coronal mass ejection at the edge of Earth's magnetic bubble.”
Walsh also says that the plasma plume is powered by electric fields generated by incoming charged particles from coronal mass ejections, or solar flares.
