The rare hurricane that was furious on Earth’s Arctic in 2014 packed with amazing punches and could be more strangers than scientists first thought.
The phenomenon, known as a “space hurricane,” unleashes the intense cosmic weather effects seen only during major solar storms, according to new research, despite the unusually quiet sun.
This report provides the first in-depth analysis of the nearly eight-hour Tempest, known to have first occurred on August 20, 2014. Researchers found that they destroyed the GPS signal, shaking the Earth’s magnetic field, and stuffed the atmosphere above with extra electrons.
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“Our research demonstrates that even during times of space hurricanes generally considered to be very quiet times, space hurricanes can cause weather effects in critical spaces,” wrote the research of Sheng Lu, an author at the Institute of Space Sciences at Shandong University in China, and his colleagues, in a study published in the journal Space Weather in July.
The stealth storm of the universe
The 2014 space hurricane was first officially described in 2021, but was initially detected by the US military’s DMSP F17 satellite, which monitors weather conditions in space. Minutes later, the European Space Agency’s Herd B satellite flew around nearby areas and collected important data confirming the structure and size of the storm, according to a new study.
The hurricane measured over 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) in diameter and swirled over the polar regions, a high-illumination zone where Earth’s magnetic fields leak the sun and space particles into the atmosphere. Like its atmosphere’s same name, the space hurricane featured a gentle center, or “eye,” and a swirling spiral arm that was clearly visible on satellite observations. But instead of wind and heavy rain, it throws a flow of high-energy electrons into the atmosphere above.
They are invisible to the naked eye, but cosmic hurricanes can be detected by satellites on the ground and sensitive instruments thanks to the glowing, spiral-shaped auroras that these storms produce.
In this case, data from multiple spacecraft and Earth magnetic stations in the Arctic Circle in Greenland and Canada showed disruption of GPS signals, magnetic field fluctuations, and increased electron density.
The abundant measurements allowed researchers to reconstruct the storm with unprecedented details. Since the late 1960s, researchers have suspected that space hurricanes could exist, but up until now there have been a lack of tools to confirm these storms.
“There were a lot of spacecraft in space back then, but they didn’t have the instrumentation to really need to understand what was going on,” John Foster, a research scientist at MIT’s Haystack Observatory, told EOS, recalling seeing a similar event more than 50 years ago. “What really makes this event special is the wide variety of instrumentation available in space to see the characteristics of this phenomenon.”
Initially considered a rare anomaly, the 2014 space hurricane has since helped open the door to further discovery. Recent follow-up studies have revealed that these storms are not only more frequent than previously thought, but also occur in both hemispheres. Usually it’s for a few months in the summer, probably up to 10 times a year.
Despite the potential disruption of orbital satellites and garbage debris, space hurricanes pose no danger to life on Earth.
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