This all-sky movie shows a time lapse of a pulsating aurora on Jan. 3, 2012. Scientists compared the video, taken in Poker Flat, Alaska, over the course of three minutes, with satellite measurements of the numbers and energies of electrons raining down from the magnetosphere to better understand how electrons transfer energy to the upper atmosphere and create the auroras. The black mark traces the satellite foot point—the place where the satellite is magnetically connected to the aurora—of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellite. Credits: NASA
Thanks to a lucky conjunction of 2 satellites, a ground-based array of all-sky cameras, and some spectacular aurora borealis, researchers have uncovered evidence for an unexpected role that electrons have in creating the dancing au...
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