They can last longer, which means they are able to accelerate particles in near-Earth space for a longer time and affect the Earth’s ionosphere.
In the Earth’s magnetosphere, standing waves have been identified, which are formed by the streams of the solar wind. They were discovered by scientists from Imperial College London.
Researchers believe that such waves should travel in the direction of the wind, but it turned out that this is not the case for everyone.
Our planet is constantly blown by the stream of infected particles from the Sun. But it is not completely defenseless, it is surrounded by a magnetosphere.
When the solar wind blows, its outer shells should “ripple”, due to the fact that waves propagate along with it in the direction of the solar wind. Now it turned out that some of these waves are standing still, the paper says.
Scientists have found that the boundary of the magnetosphere behaves like a drum membrane: after the impulse of the solar wind hits it, the waves propagate to the poles and then back to the source.
In a new study, scientists have found that these waves can not only travel to the source, but also move in the direction opposite to the solar wind. The researchers carried out computer simulations and found that the waves arriving in the magnetosphere are in antiphase with those that are reflected. In addition, “standing waves” are formed – no movement in space occurs.
Such standing waves can persist longer, which means that they are able to accelerate particles in near-Earth space for a longer time and affect the Earth’s ionosphere.
Particles that accelerate along our planet’s poles cause auroras and can also cause interruptions in communications. However, further research is needed to understand how these standing waves might affect the Earth.
Image Credit: NASA
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