Discovering Earth’s Third Global Energy Field - YouTube - NASA Goddard - Heliophysics Big Year

High above the North and South Poles,a steady stream of particles escapes from our atmosphere into space.Scientists call this mysterious outflow the Polar Wind,and for 60 years spacecraft have been flying through it as scientists theorized about it until now.The Ambipolar Electric Field is so weak that previous attempts to measure it failed.On 11 May 2022,an Endurance rocket,which is an Oriole III-A sounding rocket produced by NASA,was launched from Ny Alesard in the Svlabard Archipelago off the coast of Northern Norway.The Endurance rocket carried a new type of space plasma analyzer with extremely fine energy resolution to make the first measurements of Earth's electrical potential.We know the Earth's magnetic field shields us from harmful solar radiation.Perhaps the Ambipolar Electric field keeps gravity from crushing Earth's atmosphere.Text by NASA Goddard and edited by Andrew Taylor*Credit:NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center