The spectacular colour displays that are viewed in the northern lights (or, Auroras Borealis) are no longer a secret. Scientists believe that they have unearthed the energy source that causes these displays.
According to data received from NASA’s Themis mission ( a quintet of satellites launched this winter), a stream of charged particles that flowed through twisted bundles of magnetic fields (that connect the sun with Earth’s atmosphere) generated the energy behind these displays.
Speaking at the American Geophysical Union meeting on Tuesday, Vassilis Angelopoulos, principal investigator at the University of California, explained that, the energy thus generated gets abruptly released as a shimmering display of light, which, in turn, gets viewed in the upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.
A burst of northern lights had been detected by the satellites in March, over Canada and Alaska. The flow of articles and the magnetic fields from space was also measured by the satellites.
The studies have distinctly shown that a geomagnetic storm powers the Auroras Borealis. Its speed, much to the surprise of scientists, is 400 miles per minute. The power of this storm roughly equals that of an earthquake that measures 5.5 on the Richter Scale, according to Angelopoulos.
These satellites were the first to trace the structure of the wound-up bundles of magnetic fields that acted as the source of energy for the northern lights, although the existence of such magnetic fields had been previously suspected. The satellites mapped the structure of these fields that were about 40,000 miles above the Earth’s surface, thereby confirming earlier theories.
Scientists are also looking into the debate whether storms are triggered. It is hoped that by next year, the satellites will record a geomagnetic storm (that is currently in the making), that would provide a satisfactory answer to this query.
source:msnbc.msn