Scientists have been monitoring plumes of electrified gas that reach so high up in the atmosphere that they escape into space. The plumes form after intense eruptions from the sun and emanate from Earth’s ionosphere, the outermost layer of the atmosphere.

The ionosphere is filled with particles that have been stripped of electrons by ultraviolet radiation from the sun. This envelope of ionized gas, or plasma, can bend, distort, reflect and absorb radio waves. Plumes exacerbate the effects, impeding high and low frequency radio communications and delaying Global Positioning System navigation signals.

The phenomenon was discovered a few years ago by scientists trying to understand why GPS signals were altered following explosions of magnetized gas from the sun, storms known as coronal mass ejections.

For example, a stream of charged particles hitting Earth’s atmosphere on Nov. 20, 2003, triggered a geomagnetic storm in the ionosphere, creating a plume of charged gas that rocketed from Florida to Canada at 2,200 mph.

Scientists looking for the plume’s origin began focusing on the planet’s geomagnetic equator, which happens to pass over the sub-Sahara.

"It’s widely understood that Africa is key to the puzzle," said heliophysicist Madhulika Guhathakurta, with NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Further investigation will require the placement of dedicated GPS receivers in Africa, which presently has only a few dozen.

"There aren’t enough sensors in Africa to study the phenomenon," said Tim Fuller-Rowell of the University of Colorado in Boulder and an organizer of the Africa Space Weather Workshop being held in Addis Ababa.

"North America has thousands of GPS receivers in a network we use to monitor North American plumes," he said.

One goal of the conference is to raise awareness of the scientific quest in Africa and interest researchers in setting up hundreds of GPS receivers.

"Five years from now we hope to be making real-time maps of the ionosphere over Africa, too," Fuller-Rowell said.

Better maps of the ionosphere would help forecasters predict when and where plasma plumes will strike so airlines and GPS users can plan accordingly.

"Plumes are predictable," said Jerry Goldstein, a principal scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "Like storms on Earth, plumes are not preventable, but advance warning can make a huge difference in their impact."

Via: Discovery Chanel