LONDON: The huge energies in the ionosphere get shifted around in plasma “tubes”, observed for the first time by a Sydney University physics graduate student.
The work by graduate student Cleo Loi shows that the plasmasphere (the soup of electrons stripped away from atoms in the ionosphere) is strongly aligned with Earth’s magnetic field.
The Murchison Widefield Array, one of the precursor projects to the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA), was used to capture “binocular” images to show the plasma tubes forming in the upper atmosphere.
The work, supported by the Centre for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), sought to confirm by observation 60-year-old theories about the structures.
The “ducts”, cylindrical structures in the plasmasphere aligned with the Earth’s magnetic field, are worth observing since plasmasphere activity interferes with satellite communications and navigation systems.
Boffins are also keen to characterise the structures, so they can allow for their activity in astronomical measurements.
To measure the plasma ducts, Loi and the CAASTRO research team took 46 snapshots with the MWA, each covering about 30° of the sky.
Those snapshots let the researchers measure how much a bunch of known radio sources seemed to be “offset” from their proper position – in other words, how much effect the plasma activity interfered with them.
Splitting the MWA’s 128 antennas east-west let them measure the altitudes of the ducts – around 600 km high – and other measurements from the array showed a regularity that suggested the ducts’ cylindrical shape.
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