Earth's ionospheric turbulence may be linked to magnetospheric activity

An international team of astrophysicists and planetary scientists has discovered a possible link between magnetospheric activity and ionospheric turbulence. In their study published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group used data from two sources to compare magnetospheric activity and ionospheric turbulence occurring at nearly the same time.

The ionosphere comprises the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere—it spans from approximately 48 km to 965 km above sea level, holding ions formed from solar radiation, making it electrically charged. The magnetosphere is an area of space surrounding Earth—it has charged particles that are impacted by Earth's magnetic field. It exists courtesy of the planet's internal dynamo. It extends to approximately 65,000 km from the surface, though the distance varies greatly depending on a variety of factors.

Over the past several years, scientists have noted that turbulence in the ionosphere can cause problems with GPS signals, radio communications and even parts of the internet. Researchers have been looking to better understand why it happens and to figure out a way to predict when it will occur, and how strongly. In this new effort, the research team has taken a step toward solving the latter problems.

The team suspected that activity in the magnetosphere may be responsible for at least some of the turbulence that occurs in the ionosphere. To investigate, they used two sources of observational data: one on activity in the ionosphere (from the Japanese spacecraft Arase) and the other on the magnetosphere (from the ground-based ICEBEAR station in Canada).

By comparing data from both over the period January 2020 to June 2023, they were able to see if activity happening in the magnetosphere was followed soon thereafter by turbulence in the ionosphere and found one such incidence.

Data from Arase showed a burst of activity on May 12, 2021, in the magnetosphere. Seconds later, data from ICEBEAR showed turbulence occurring in the ionosphere. The data also showed the activity for both occurred over roughly the same patch of Earth and that the shape and timing of the signals matched to what the team describes as "a high degree of precision."

The researchers acknowledge that more work is required before a definitive association can be made between events in the magnetosphere and turbulence in the ionosphere, but they suggest their work is a strong step in proving it to be the case.

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