home • about • essential guide • picture of the day • thunderblogs • news • multimedia • predictions • products • get involved • contact

news and views

PRINCE RUPERT, B.C. — A team of scientists from the University of Calgary is helping unlock the mysteries of one of nature’s great spectacles, the northern lights.

Northern lights, otherwise known as aurora borealis, can be seen over the Canadian north on cold clear winter nights, but their exact cause remains a mystery to scientists.

“This is a very exciting moment for us because we are expecting to greatly enhance our understanding of these space disturbances that are both beautiful and powerful,” said Dr. Eric Donovan, a University of Calgary physics professor and leader of the Canadian Space Agency-funded component of the project.

A team of scientists, including physicists from the University of Calgary, will begin gathering the most detailed information yet about the northern lights as the multi-year research project enters its ultimate phase with the launch of five NASA satellites from Cape Canaveral next month.

For their part in the program, Calgary’s team is operating a network of 16 ground-based observatories across Northern Canada.

An additional four observatories are operated in Alaska by the University of Berkley.

The satellites will probe dynamic processes of astrophysical interest in near-Earth space, while the ground-based observatories will create mosaics of the night sky, capturing changes in the northern lights.

The ground- and space-based observations will enable scientists to pinpoint the cause of brilliant explosions of shimmering light known as “auroral substorms.”

“The next few years are going to be very busy for us,” Donovan said.

Auroras are caused by the interaction of charged particles from the sun — also known as the solar wind — with the Earth’s magnetic field.

Auroral substorms are the unpredictable bursts that take place when energy stored in the tail of the magnetic field is released and travel along magnetic lines to the polar regions where they cause spectacular displays of iridescent light.

However, these storms are not fully understood and previous studies have not been able to determine where in the magnetosphere the energy of the solar wind transforms into explosive auroras.

See full article here
__________________________

Comment from our TPOD "The Electric Earth": 

“The complex patterns of electric currents and magnetic fields surrounding the Earth are how the Earth's electric charge adjusts to the Sun's electric field. These electrical phenomena were a complete surprise, discovered by satellites launched by astronomers who expected to find the Earth isolated from the rest of the universe by featureless vacuum. Instead, they found the near-Earth environs alive with energetic activity."

home   •   updates   •   news and views   •  picture of the day   •   resources  •   team   •   a role for you   •  contact us