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Aurorae

Still in the dark

Nature volume 393, pages 312–313 (1998)Cite this article

After decades of research, our understanding of the aurora is disturbingly incomplete. One long-held belief, that aurorae are much more common following each peak in the 11-year solar cycle, has now been overturned by Newell and colleagues, reporting on page 342 of this issue1. They also corroborate their earlier conclusion2 that discrete aurorae occur more often above dark regions of the atmosphere than above sunlit regions. Both of these discoveries support the idea that aurorae are discharge phenomena, but they leave many questions open about the processes that drive them.

There are two main types of aurora3: diffuse and discrete. A diffuse aurora is a broad, often featureless glow, produced in the upper atmosphere by electrons and ions leaking out of the Earth's magnetosphere. Discrete aurorae, also known as auroral arcs, are bright, thin, dynamic, vertical glowing curtains produced by electrons that are somehow accelerated downward from the magnetosphere into the upper atmosphere. Narrow layers of current flow along magnetic field lines from the magnetosphere to the auroral arcs in the ionosphere. But there is no consensus on what generators power these electrical currents, or on what accelerates the electrons to the high energies needed to cause the glow.

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Figure 1: The layer of electrical conduction in the upper atmosphere (ionosphere) at auroral latitudes, within about 30° of each pole.
Figure 2: A magnetic field line connecting auroral regions near the Earth's North and South Poles.

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  1. the Space and Atmospheric Sciences Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, 87545, New Mexico, USA

    Joseph E. Borovsky

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  1. Joseph E. Borovsky
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Borovsky, J. Still in the dark. Nature 393, 312–313 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/30616

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