A new electric field on the planet is Fundamental to the Earth like gravity It was discovered in a major scientific breakthrough.
The dipole electric field, which begins 150 miles above the planet, has been described as a “great invisible force” that lifts the sky and is responsible for the polar winds.
Polar winds interact with jet streams to help drive most weather patterns around the world.
Until now, this field was just a theory, but a NASA team, including scientists from the University of Leicester, has now sent a rocket into the field and measured it for the first time.
This means that the Earth now has three energy fields: gravity; Magnetic fieldwhich protects the planet from cosmic radiation; and the dipole electric field.
Dr. Glenn Collinson, Principal Investigator Endurance mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center “Whenever spacecraft fly over Earth’s poles, they feel these supersonic winds of particles called polar winds,” said the astronomer at Greenbelt University in Maryland.
“There must be some invisible force lurking there responsible for this flow, but we have never been able to measure it because we don’t have the technology to do it.
“This field is absolutely fundamental to understanding how the planet works. It has been there from the beginning along with gravity and magnetism. It has been spewing particles into space and stretching into the sky since the beginning.”
The field was hard to detect because it was so weak, just 0.55 volts. But it was enough to nearly triple the height of the ionosphere—the part of the upper atmosphere between 30 and 600 miles above sea level. The height of the ionosphere describes how quickly the atmosphere is thinning, meaning that the ionosphere remains denser at higher altitudes than it would have been without it.
“Although it is weak, it is very important,” Dr Collinson added. “It resists gravity and lifts the sky up. It is like a conveyor belt lifting the atmosphere into space.”
“Half a volt is negligible—no more than the power of a watch battery. But that’s about the right amount to explain the polar winds.”
Understanding the atmosphere is crucial to Earth’s evolution and could help scientists discover other potentially habitable planets. The team believes that any planet with an atmosphere is likely to have a dipole field.
In order to launch in the dipole electric field, scientists had to travel to the most northerly launch pad in the world, at the Ny Ålesund site in Svalbard, Norway, a few hundred miles from the North Pole.
The mission, which began in 2016, is named Endurance after the ship that carried Ernest Shackleton on his voyage to Antarctica in 1914.
“Svalbard has the only rocket range in the world where you can fly through the polar winds and make the measurements we need,” said Professor Susie Imber, a space physicist at the University of Leicester and co-author of the study.
The team found that hydrogen ions, the most abundant type of particle in the polar wind, experience an outward force from this field that is about 10.6 times stronger than gravity.
“That’s more than enough to resist gravity — in fact, it’s enough to launch them into space at supersonic speeds,” said Alex Glocer, Endurance project scientist at NASA Goddard and co-author of the study.
The discovery of the field was announced in the journal Nature.
“What makes Earth the special place we all call home? One reason may have to do with the energy fields our planet creates,” Dr Collinson added.
“One is gravity. It is important for life because it holds our atmosphere together. The other is the magnetic field, which protects our planet from the stream of particles coming from the sun.
“Our rocket has finally detected, and measured, the number three. Now that we can finally measure it, we can begin to learn how it has shaped our planet and other planets over time.”
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