An international team of scientists has successfully measured a planet-wide electric field thought to be as fundamental to Earth as its gravity and magnetic fields. Known as the ambipolar electric field, scientists first hypothesized over 60 years ago that it drove atmospheric escape above Earth’s North and South Poles. Measurements from a suborbital rocket have confirmed the existence of the ambipolar field and quantified its strength, revealing its role in driving atmospheric escape and shaping our ionosphere — a layer of the upper atmosphere — more broadly. The paper was published today in the journal Nature.
Category:
Goddard Space Flight Center, Heliophysics, Heliophysics Division, Ionosphere, Science & Research, Sounding Rockets, Sounding Rockets Program
Posted on
August 28, 2024
Sign up for our newsletter:
Categories
1
4
2
24
10
9
18
1
18
79
6
15
13
1
40
3
2
1
2
3
15
2
4
9
1
1
1
157
8
1
12
6
1
323
12
1
2
3
29
12
10
13
14
3
11
1
18
1
4
6
6
6
1
3
48
1
41
1
100
2
1
23
1
1
29
8
62
1
5
297
1
10
5
7
16
3
42
2
2
148
1
96
4
1
15
2
281
3
34
29
6
1
55
4
10
2
1
1
7
8
595
141
1
6
10
5
2
3
1
3
9
233
10
1
90
31
1
2
37
1
103
146
1
2
14
1
322
2
132
42
1
28
2
29
24
102
10
184
1
4
3
3
1
360
1
1
128
51
18
1
50
1
1
13
12
2
4
19
1
2
1
10
13
135
198
209
37
16
1
23
25
332
2
1
1
1
Blog Posts
NASA Data Hackathon Inspires Community Action
March 23, 2026
See NASA’s GUARDIAN Catch a Tsunami
March 23, 2026