A band of Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights, stretches over the Chugach Range near Palmer, Alaska in this February file photo. Scientists think they have discovered the energy source of the spectacular color displays seen in the northern lights. (AP Photo/Bob Martinson, FILE)
Yupper..
That is what parents have been telling their children for years. The satellites no doubt have collected some interesting data, but the description in the article conveys none of this since it would require -- mathematics.
Electric Universe ping
Both the city lights and the auroras are created by electric circuits. If there is no circuit, there will be no light. Our experience tells us where to look for every stage of the circuit that connects city lights. And we know that if we break that circuit at any point along its way, the city lights will fail. But we've only had the technology to observe the auroral circuits in space for a few decades. How long before our new experiences find a way to trace the circuits of all the electrical currents in space?
Aurora Australis in a crowing glory from Alair, TImaru, New Zealand
Aurora crowns Jupiters North Pole.
Auroral activity strongly correlates with solar activity. Peak activity repeats on an 11-year cycle.
May be of interest.
Something besides the sun?
EVEN PRIOR SCIENCE MUST BOW BEFORE THE SCIENCE HIGH PRIEST NASA
Scientists think they have discovered the energy source of the spectacular color displays seen in the northern lights. New data from NASA's Themis mission, a quintet of satellites ...Oh, geesh, we've known what caused the auroras since soon after Marconi. We were able to see the solar plasma rolling trapped in the magnetic belts as the characteristic radio noises it makes -- the whistles and pops we hear in the AM band.To scientists' surprise, the geomagnetic storm powering the auroras raced 400 miles in a minute across the sky ... "Nature was very kind to us," Angelopoulos said. ...
Although researchers have suspected the existence of wound-up bundles of magnetic fields that provide energy for the auroras, the phenomenon was not confirmed until May, when the satellites became the first to map their structure some 40,000 miles above the Earth's surface.
This has been well understood for nearly a century now. At least before NASA. But now, oh golly gee, it wasn't official, only "suspected". NASA and only Science and Nature's High Priest NASA can declare what Science and Nature are.
Amen. / sarc
Is this really news? I thought we knew about this since the Argus tests in ‘58.
a stream of charged particles from the sun flowing like a current through twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting Earth's upper atmosphere to the sunImagine the auroras one would see on Io...
Now, how about a way to harness this energy for human use?