23 March 2017 supersonic plasma jets have been discovered in earth's atmosphere that can reach the temperature of up to 10,000 C. Canadian researchers used the ESA's Swarm satellites to distinguish these jets, which have been named Birkeland current boundary flows.
Birkeland currents were initially affirmed in the 1970s. Named after Kristian Birkeland, whom past 100 years ago discovered their existence. These are massive electric currents being controlled by solar winds and guided through the atmosphere by the planet's magnetic field. They bring a big amount of electric power to the atmosphere.
Lately, scientists found Birkeland currents were also connected with huge electric fields that are powerful in the winter. This is when currents moving upwards and downwards interface through the ionosphere, ESA cited.
Utilizing three Swarm satellites, scientists discovered supersonic plasma jets that reach intense temperatures. They introduced their discoveries at the Swarm Science Meeting as of now happening in Canada.
Bill Archer, from the University of Calgary, stated: "Using data from the Swarm satellites' electric field instruments, we found that these solid electric fields drive supersonic plasma jets.'Birkeland current boundary flows' or simply called the jets, mark particularly the boundary between current sheets moving in inverse or opposite directions and lead to intense conditions in the upper atmosphere.
"They can drive the ionosphere to temperatures moving toward 10,000C and change its chemical composition. They also make the ionosphere stream upwards to higher elevations where extra energization can cause loss of atmospheric material to space," as per Phys
David Knudsen, also from the University of Calgary, included: "These current discoveries from Swarm include learning of electric potential, and along these lines voltage, to our comprehension of the Birkeland current circuit, maybe the most widely recognized sorting out feature of the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere system"
