Astronomers have translated into sound the disturbance of the magnetic field of our planet. A team of scientists from the University of Helsinki used data collected as part of the European Space Agency's cluster mission to study the Earth's magnetic field using four spacecraft. The study can help us understand space weather disturbances and how they affect technology, both on Earth and in space. It can also tell us about the magnetic fields of distant exoplanets and how they are affected by the parent star.
Solar winds occur when particles are emitted from the Sun and travel to other parts of the solar system. A solar storm, or coronal mass ejection, occurs when the sun ejects a plasma explosion caused by the release of magnetic energy. Such a storm is so strong that it can temporarily change the shape of the Earth's magnetic field.
The team studied foreshocks - the regions where solar storm particles hit first as they approached Earth - and found that the magnetic waves that were released as a result were much more complex than they initially thought. “We always expected the frequency to change, but not the difficulty level of the wave,” said team leader Lucille Turk from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Then, scientists turned these magnetic waves into sounds.