Sydney University physics undergraduate maps huge plasma tubes in the sky
A Sydney University student has for the first time used radio telescopes like a giant pair of electronic eyes to locate huge plasma tubes in the atmosphere that interfere with astronomy observations and which could affect some civilian and military navigation systems.
Scientists have long thought that the interaction of the earth's magnetic field with energy from the sun would create huge tubes of plasma. But they have never been able to directly observe them over large scales or determine their shape. Until now.
While still an undergraduate, Cleo Loi, 23, used the Murchison Wide Field Array in the Western Australia desert in a way that no other radio telescope has been used before.
SNIP
The tubes are in the earth's upper atmosphere, known as the ionosphere, which largely consists of ionised oxygen. The ionosphere is so called because photons from the sun dislodge electrons from otherwise neutral atoms in this layer of the atmosphere, creating a soup or plasma of electronically charged particles. This plasma interacts with the earth's magnetic field, creating field-aligned ducts of the plasma.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technology/sci-tech/astronomy/sydney-university-physics-undergraduate-maps-huge-plasma-tubes-in-the-sky-20150601-ghcc9g.html
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