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thunderbolts.

info Perhaps the most obvious sparks are the auroras, as seen in
Picture of the Day the picture below, taken from the space shuttle Atlantis.
March 2, 2005 The complex patterns of electric currents and magnetic
fields surrounding the Earth are how the Earth's electric
charge adjusts to the Sun's electric field. These electrical

The phenomena were a complete surprise, discovered by sat-

Electric Earth
The Earth is an electrified body,
moving in a plasma. We who
stand on its surface are seldom
aware of its electrical proper-
ties. That's because we live in
balance with the Earth's elec-
tric field. Similarly, a bird on
an electric wire has no idea that
high-energy currents of electric-
ity are flowing beneath her feet.
But she might notice the hums
and crackles that are side effects
of that current.

L ike the high-tension wire, our


Earth produces hums and crack-
les as it responds to surges of pow-
er in the electric currents of space.
NASA photo


THUNDERBOLTS PICTURE OF THE DAY The Electric Earth 2

ellites launched by astronomers who expected to find the


Earth isolated from the rest of the universe by featureless
vacuum. Instead, they found the near-Earth environs alive
with energetic activity.
Other electrical sparks that the Earth produces go un-
noticed because we have lived with them so long that we
think we know what causes them. Many meteorological
phenomena are electrically driven. We've always thought of
lightning as electrical, and now we're beginning to realize
that we can think of tornadoes and hurricanes as electri-
cal phenomena, too. But less spectacular weather condi-
tions like dust devils and waterspouts are also electrically
driven, as are larger weather patterns, the jet streams and Multiple lightning strikes in a nighttime thunderstorm captured with time-lapse
El Niño. photography. NOAA photo

Earthquakes can be induced by pumping electricity into


the Earth, and natural quakes are often accompanied by or
preceded by electrical glows called earthquake lights and
radio frequency static. Volcanoes are often accompanied
by copious amounts of lightning. No one died from the
lava flows or cinder bombs during the decade- long erup-
tions of Paricutin in Mexico, but three people were killed
by its lightning.
All of the Earth sciences could profit from asking the
question: How do the discoveries of Earth's unexpected
electrical environment affect our discipline? How many
concepts have been overlooked because until a few decades
ago no one suspected that Earth is an electrified body mov-
Massive electrical discharges accompanied the 2008 eruption of the Chaiten
ing through a plasma? volcano in Chile. UPI photo

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