Magnetic Portals

Today I thought I would share what I learned about Flux Transfer Events (or FTEs). Why? Because it's a crazy thing that exists...and I've been watching a lot of sci fi.

An FTE is an opening between the Sun's and the Earth's magnetic fields that allows particles to travel directly between the two. Particles are usually carried from Sun to Earth on the solar wind, which was thought to be relatively consistent, like a springtime breeze. These particles would either end up bouncing off the Earth's magnetic field or find their way into the atmosphere along a magnetic field line. But, scientists now can prove that there are actual portals that open (about every 8 minutes) when the magnetic fields of the Earth and Sun intersect, that allow huge amounts of particles to zip from Sun to Earth in ways that one scientist described, as only a scientist could, as "bursty." Why are these important? That question is addressed by my favorite line in the livescience.com article that inspired this post. These FTEs "form important conduits of energy for the Earth's magnetosphere."

Next week, WTF is an magnetosphere?