This animation shows how the ambipolar electric field works. The most abundant gas in the lower atmosphere, the part we live in, is nitrogen (N2, shown around seven seconds). Pan up to the ionosphere (14 seconds), though, and you’ll find more atomic oxygen. Photons from the sun can collide with oxygen and knock one of their electrons loose, leaving a positively charged oxygen ion behind. The pull between those ions and their lost electrons is the ambipolar electric field, which ties them together.
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Video: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
