Planet-wide Electric fields

Planet-wide Electric fields

News from earth: Week 7 Phys 100: Earth Science Tyler Lederle

NASA

Shocking news from up-above...

A long-theorized energy field, called the "ambipolar field," has been officially detected by NASA Edurance scientists. This field is a critical finding, fueling the belief that the fields play a key role in the movement of large particles within the upper atmosphere, especially near the poles.

• Discovery: NASA's Endurance rocket mission successfully measured the existence of the ambipolar field, providing concrete evidence of its existence.
• Significance: This field is considered to be a fundamental force like gravity and magnetism, playing a crucial role in the dynamics of our Earth's upper atmosphere.
• Function: The ambipolar electric field is believed to be a force in driving the "polar winds," which is the outward flow of charged particles from the Earth's poles.

• Impact on research: This discovery opens up new avenues for studying different planetary atmospheric dynamics and could potentially shed light on the evolution of atmospheres on other planets in our solar system, like Venus and Mars.

Back to the book

Ambipolar fields are closely related to this week's reading of chapters 16, 19, and 20 through its direct connection with the Earth's atmosphere. They-

• play a crucial role in shaping the upper atmosphere (particularly the ionosphere) by lifting and pushing charged particles away from Earth, counteracting gravity (to a degree) and influencing how our atmosphere interacts with space

THANK YOU

Source:

• NASA Discovers a Long-Sought Global Electric Field on Earth - NASA Science. (2024, August 28). Nasa.gov. https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/nasa-discovers-long-sought-global-electric-field-on-earth/ ‌‌