The Ambipolar Field: Holding Up Earth's Atmosphere

Hi Spacecats, I'm Dr Maggie Lieu and welcome to my channel, where you can find all things space, astronomy and physics! Have you ever wondered why the atmosphere doesnt float off to space but doesnt crash down to earth either? Earth's ambipolar field plays a crucial role, pushing the atmosphere upwards and impacting everything from ion density to our planet's overall structure. In this video I talk about just that from the latest research findings from NASAs endurance rocket

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Media credits:
Earth's magnetic field: ESA

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[ThatBoomerDude]

Mostly the Brownian motion of heat keeps the atmosphere off the ground.
But this is a really interesting explanation of forces in the upper atmosphere. 😎

[stusacks]

You have a knack to cover topics I won't find anywhere else. Thank you for your hard work and efforts.

[Rafaga]

I never have heard of the ambipolar field. Okay, learned something today. Thanks a lot for the concise explanation.

[tonywells]

It might make the ionosphere more 'buoyant' but the rest of the atmosphere just chills out on its own.

[Tech_Planet]

This is really interesting, thanks for sharing! Also, it has been discovered that a type of wave (whistler) intriguingly carries lightning energy from the ionosphere at low latitudes all the way to the magnetosphere.

[mdshaler]

I love your channel!
I appreciate the 5 to 10 minute video format on whatever you find interesting!
I know this channel will blow up someday!
Space Kat

[johnlewis]

Fascinating stuff again! Still so much to learn

[ptonpc]

I've never heard of this, amazing stuff. :) PS. Kudos for the B99 reference!

[Ray_of_Light]

Few months ago, Starlink launched a batch of their satellites, in a provisional, very low orbit. Prior to entering service, the satellites had to raise their orbit to reach the rest of the Starlink Constellation.
Well, before these satellites had reached their final, higher orbit, the Sun had a Coronal Mass Ejection, which sent a stream of charged particles toward Earth, which swelled the atmosphere considerably. As a consequence, the Starlink satellites found themselves in a much denser atmosphere, which decreased their orbital speed and so they fall down, burning up in the atmosphere.

[BZAKether]

Very interesting, I had no idea of even the existence of that field, and now I know that keeps our air up there. Thank you!

[samedwards]

Thanks so much for yet another educational and entertaining video. Often answering questions that I never knew I had - much to my Delight. Making me more knowledgeable! Keep it up.

[stevencameron]

I wait patiently sometimes for days just for that "hey, space cats" moment☺️

[richardmann]

Thank you, I learnt something today as didn't fully understand this.
Great explanation too 👍

[garyfilmer]

I had never heard of this Ambipolar field before, this is extremely interesting, thank you, Maggie. I would love to know if this ‘electric field’ contributes to storms, and different types of lightning, fork and sheet lightning, especially where you have those fascinating silent electric storms, where rolls of thunder are not heard, and it is just flashes of ‘sheet lightning’ shooting laterally across the sky.

[annexcelestial]

Thank you Dr Maggie, I love this video!!!

[ARWest-bpyb]

I get a little smarter every time I see you!👨‍🎓😊👍👍

[mmdurfee]

So often we find that for something to be scientifically credible, a measurement is required for there to be a threshold that constrains the measurement to a specific tolerance or composition. But as we can see from the ambipolar composition of the ionosphere, the space-time continuum isn't dependent on these thresholds, allowing the opposite charges from the ions and electrons to compose the same regions in the exobase.

[crawkn]

There are many very complex things interacting to create the chaotic system that is our atmosphere. It is good that we have the tools and the motivation to learn about them all, but it doesn't help when trying to explain it to the short attention span masses, who prefer their "truths" oversimplified.

[husk]

its amazing.. so much stuff we are still learning about earth! it will be really interesting to find out if its like this on every planet or maybe just planets with life?

[NachtmahrNebenan]

Definitely learned something today!
My first thought was about the Asterix Comics where the Gauls fear the sky falling on their heads 😂