Live Science
February 3, 2023
The moon exerts a previously unknown tidal force on the “plasma ocean” surrounding Earth’s upper atmosphere, creating fluctuations that are similar to the tides in the oceans, a new study suggests.
In the study, published Jan. 26 in the journal Nature Physics(opens in new tab), scientists used more than 40 years of data collected by satellites to track the minute changes in the shape of the plasmasphere, the inner region of Earth‘s magnetosphere, which shields our planet from solar storms and other types of high-energy particles.