Earth's ambipolar electrostatic field and its role in ion escape to space

Glyn A Collinson^{1

2

3}, Alex Glocer⁴, Robert Pfaff⁴, Aroh Barjatya⁵, Rachel Conway⁵, Aaron Breneman⁴, James Clemmons⁶, Francis Eparvier⁷, Robert Michell⁴, David Mitchell⁸, Suzie Imber⁹, Hassanali Akbari^{4

10}, Lance Davis⁵, Andrew Kavanagh¹¹, Ellen Robertson⁴, Diana Swanson⁶, Shaosui Xu⁸, Jacob Miller^{4

12}, Timothy Cameron⁴, Dennis Chornay⁴, Paulo Uribe⁴, Long Nguyen⁴, Robert Clayton⁵, Nathan Graves⁵, Shantanab Debchoudhury⁵, Henry Valentine⁵, Ahmed Ghalib¹³; Endurance Mission Team

Collaborators, Affiliations

Collaborators

Endurance Mission Team:
S Adkins, H Akbari, R Albano, L Baddeley, H Bahr, G Bain, C Bancroft, A Barjatya, A Barrie, M Binder, S Bissett, K Blix, A Bolton, B Bonsteel, H Borgen, D Bowden, D Bowker, E Bowlen, M Bradshaw, A Breneman, G Bridges, T Cameron, M Campbell, P Cathell, D Chornay, R Clayton, J Clemmons, G Collinson, L Conser, R Conway, L Davis, S Debchoudhury, P Demaine, D Detwiler, M Disbrow, J Doughty, L Eilertsen, S Ellis, F Eparvier, R Ethridge, R Fahringer, J Farrell, M Francheshini, C Frost, T Gass, A Ghalib, A Glocer, C Grabusky, N Graves, I Haggstrom, P Hanssen, G Harlan, T Harper, H Haugh, E Helgesen, J Henderson, D Henderson, K Herseth, S Imber, K Jensen, T Jester, R Jillard, E Johnson, H Johnson, G Jones, T Jones, A Kavanagh, M King, D Knight, R Laman, T Lankford, R Lien, P Lotz, M Maimone, G Marsh, R Marshall, S Martin, T McFaden, R Michell, D Mitchell, M Moffett, N Morris, A Mueseler, C Nelson, L Nguyen, W Ogundere, K Osbakk, D Page, N Paschalidis, R Pfaff, C Pirner, E Pittman, J Polidan, D Puopolo, D Raley, Z Rawlings, P Ribbens, E Robertson, S Rodriguez, G Rosanova, B Rose, T Rosnack, T Russell, M Samara, B Serabian, T Sherman, R Simonsen, T Snyder, J Søreng, V Sutton, J Sveen, D Swanson, R Swift, W Taylor, R Terwiliger, S Tiede, C Tucker, P Uribe, H Valentine, M Wallace, F Waters, L West, B West, T Wilson, N Wroblewski, S Xu, D Zarro, E Zesta

Affiliations

¹ Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA. glyn.a.collinson@nasa.gov.
² Institute for Astrophysics and Computational Sciences, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA. glyn.a.collinson@nasa.gov.
³ G & K Rocket Yards, Interplanetary Expeditions, Criccieth, UK. glyn.a.collinson@nasa.gov.
⁴ Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
⁵ Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, USA.
⁶ College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NC, USA.
⁷ Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁸ Space Science Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
¹⁰ Institute for Astrophysics and Computational Sciences, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA.
¹¹ Space Weather and Atmosphere Team, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK.
¹² Penn State University, State College, PA, USA.
¹³ NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA, USA.

PMID: 39198670
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07480-3

Earth's ambipolar electrostatic field and its role in ion escape to space

Glyn A Collinson et al. Nature. 2024 Aug.

. 2024 Aug;632(8027):1021-1025.

doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07480-3. Epub 2024 Aug 28.

Authors

Collaborators

Endurance Mission Team:
S Adkins, H Akbari, R Albano, L Baddeley, H Bahr, G Bain, C Bancroft, A Barjatya, A Barrie, M Binder, S Bissett, K Blix, A Bolton, B Bonsteel, H Borgen, D Bowden, D Bowker, E Bowlen, M Bradshaw, A Breneman, G Bridges, T Cameron, M Campbell, P Cathell, D Chornay, R Clayton, J Clemmons, G Collinson, L Conser, R Conway, L Davis, S Debchoudhury, P Demaine, D Detwiler, M Disbrow, J Doughty, L Eilertsen, S Ellis, F Eparvier, R Ethridge, R Fahringer, J Farrell, M Francheshini, C Frost, T Gass, A Ghalib, A Glocer, C Grabusky, N Graves, I Haggstrom, P Hanssen, G Harlan, T Harper, H Haugh, E Helgesen, J Henderson, D Henderson, K Herseth, S Imber, K Jensen, T Jester, R Jillard, E Johnson, H Johnson, G Jones, T Jones, A Kavanagh, M King, D Knight, R Laman, T Lankford, R Lien, P Lotz, M Maimone, G Marsh, R Marshall, S Martin, T McFaden, R Michell, D Mitchell, M Moffett, N Morris, A Mueseler, C Nelson, L Nguyen, W Ogundere, K Osbakk, D Page, N Paschalidis, R Pfaff, C Pirner, E Pittman, J Polidan, D Puopolo, D Raley, Z Rawlings, P Ribbens, E Robertson, S Rodriguez, G Rosanova, B Rose, T Rosnack, T Russell, M Samara, B Serabian, T Sherman, R Simonsen, T Snyder, J Søreng, V Sutton, J Sveen, D Swanson, R Swift, W Taylor, R Terwiliger, S Tiede, C Tucker, P Uribe, H Valentine, M Wallace, F Waters, L West, B West, T Wilson, N Wroblewski, S Xu, D Zarro, E Zesta

Affiliations

¹ Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA. glyn.a.collinson@nasa.gov.
² Institute for Astrophysics and Computational Sciences, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA. glyn.a.collinson@nasa.gov.
³ G & K Rocket Yards, Interplanetary Expeditions, Criccieth, UK. glyn.a.collinson@nasa.gov.
⁴ Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
⁵ Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, USA.
⁶ College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NC, USA.
⁷ Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁸ Space Science Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
¹⁰ Institute for Astrophysics and Computational Sciences, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA.
¹¹ Space Weather and Atmosphere Team, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK.
¹² Penn State University, State College, PA, USA.
¹³ NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA, USA.

PMID: 39198670
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07480-3

Erratum in

Author Correction: Earth's ambipolar electrostatic field and its role in ion escape to space.
Collinson GA, Glocer A, Pfaff R, Barjatya A, Conway R, Breneman A, Clemmons J, Eparvier F, Michell R, Mitchell D, Imber S, Akbari H, Davis L, Kavanagh A, Robertson E, Swanson D, Xu S, Miller J, Cameron T, Chornay D, Uribe P, Nguyen L, Clayton R, Graves N, Debchoudhury S, Valentine H, Ghalib A; Endurance Mission Team. Collinson GA, et al. Nature. 2025 Jun;642(8066):E11. doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09144-2. Nature. 2025. PMID: 40394309 No abstract available.

Abstract

Cold plasma of ionospheric origin has recently been found to be a much larger contributor to the magnetosphere of Earth than expected^1-3. Numerous competing mechanisms have been postulated to drive ion escape to space, including heating and acceleration by wave-particle interactions⁴ and a global electrostatic field between the ionosphere and space (called the ambipolar or polarization field)^5,6. Observations of heated O⁺ ions in the magnetosphere are consistent with resonant wave-particle interactions⁷. By contrast, observations of cold supersonic H⁺ flowing out of the polar ionosphere^8,9 (called the polar wind) suggest the presence of an electrostatic field. Here we report the existence of a +0.55 ± 0.09 V electric potential drop between 250 km and 768 km from a planetary electrostatic field (E_∥⊕ = 1.09 ± 0.17 μV m^-1) generated exclusively by the outward pressure of ionospheric electrons. We experimentally demonstrate that the ambipolar field of Earth controls the structure of the polar ionosphere, boosting the scale height by 271%. We infer that this increases the supply of cold O⁺ ions to the magnetosphere by more than 3,800%, in which other mechanisms such as wave-particle interactions can heat and further accelerate them to escape velocity. The electrostatic field of Earth is strong enough by itself to drive the polar wind^9,10 and is probably the origin of the cold H⁺ ion population¹ that dominates much of the magnetosphere^2,3.

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References

1. Engwall, E. et al. Earth’s ionospheric outflow dominated by hidden cold plasma. Nat. Geosci. 2, 24–27 (2009). - DOI
1. Haaland, S. et al. Estimating the capture and loss of cold plasma from ionospheric outflow. J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys. 117, A07311 (2012). - DOI
1. André, M., Toledo-Redondo, S. & Yau, A. W. in Space Physics and Aeronomy Collection Vol. 2: Magnetospheres in the Solar System (eds Maggiolo, R. et al.) Geophysical Monograph 259 (American Geophysical Union, Wiley, 2021).
1. Kistler, L. M. et al. Cusp and nightside auroral sources of O+ in the plasma sheet. J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys. 124, 10036–10047 (2019). - DOI
1. Strangeway, R. J., Ergun, R. E., Su, Y.-J., Carlson, C. W. & Elphic, R. C. Factors controlling ionospheric outflows as observed at intermediate altitudes. J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys. 110, A03221 (2005). - DOI

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Earth's ambipolar electrostatic field and its role in ion escape to space

Collaborators

Affiliations

Earth's ambipolar electrostatic field and its role in ion escape to space

Authors

Collaborators

Affiliations

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References

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