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New research has discovered that a phenomenon thought to be exclusive to the Sun also happens on Earth. The discovery could help predict geomagnetic storms more accurately.
A new published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics discovered a non-magnetic field phenomenon of Earth that was believed to occur only near the Sun.
By analyzing data from NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, researchers identified unexpected structures in plasma trapped within Earth’s magnetosphere. The plasma appeared to twist and rotate before abruptly returning to its original position, forming zigzag distortions known as magnetic reversals. These structures closely resemble those observed decades ago in high-speed plasma flows emanating from the Sun.
Magnetic reversals are typically associated with interactions between different types of solar magnetic field lines. Open field lines extend from the Sun into space, guiding solar wind plasma through the Solar System. Closed magnetic field lines, however, curve outward only briefly before returning toward the Sun’s surface.
When open and closed magnetic lines interact, they can break up and come back togethersending the plasma towards new paths in an S-shaped movement, explains the . This reconnection process generates bursts of energy that “bend” the magnetic field, giving it the characteristic zigzag shape.
The surprise for the New Hampshire researchers came when they realized that plasma that exhibited zigzag characteristics near Earth was not exclusively of terrestrial origin. Some of it had come from the Sun and mixed with charged particles generated by Earth. The interaction of these two plasma populations caused the Earth’s magnetic field lines to break and reconnect in a similar way to what happens near the Sun.
In the case of Earth, the open field lines belonged to the incident solar windwhile the closed lines were those that formed loops around our planet. The resulting magnetic perturbations mimic the solar process, effectively creating miniature versions of solar zigzags right at the boundary between Earth’s magnetosphere and the solar plasma flowing into its interior.
The discovery, made by physicists Emily McDougall and Matthew Argall, could lead to more accurate predictions of geomagnetic storms.
