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Cluster Satellite Watches Earth's Leaky Atmosphere By Josh Vanderwerf We are constantly losing oxygen because it is leaking out of Earth’s atmosphere into space. The ESA’s formation-flying quartet of satellites, otherwise known as Cluster, has discovered the physical mechanism that is making oxygen escape out of Earth’s atmosphere and into space. Earth’s magnetic field is what is driving the oxygen away. This new discovery uses data collected by Cluster from 2001-2003. In this time frame, Cluster revealed that ions were flowing outwards from polar regions to space. Hans Nilsson and his team discovered that the changes in the direction of the magnetic is what caused the ions to be accelerated. “It is a bit like a sling-shot effect,” says Nilsson. Having all four spacecraft was key because it gave astronomers a way to measure the strength and the direction of the magnetic field over a very large area. “Cluster allowed us to measure the gradient of the magnetic field and see how it was changing direction with time,” says Nilsson. Scientists used to believe the solar wind particles were the only thing that filled Earth’s magnetic field. “We are beginning to realize just how many interactions can take place between the solar wind and the atmosphere,” says Nilsson.

Contributed by mrjwerf23 on January 24, 2009, at 12:43 PM UTC.

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