Mechanisms of Northern Lights tagged posts

This is a picture of the Northern Lights. Credit: University of Bath

University of Bath researchers have gained new understanding of the Northern Lights, providing an opportunity to develop better satellite technology that can negate outages caused by this natural phenomenon. Previous research has shown that the Northern Lights aka Aurora Borealis interfere with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals which are heavily relied upon in the transport and civil aviation industries. The plasma turbulence within the Northern Lights was traditionally deemed responsible for causing GNSS inaccuracies. However, this latest research found that turbulence does not exist, suggesting new, unknown mechanisms are actually responsible for outages on GNSS signals.

The team observed the Northern L...