aurorae Archives

Swirling cloud bands in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere

Could Jupiter’s Heat Waves Help Solve a Planetary Energy Crisis?

by Tim Hornyak 9 November 202217 February 2023

Infrared observations reveal that Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is much warmer than models predict. The discovery may be a clue to finding missing heat sources in other giant planets.

Editors' Highlights

Origin of Dawnside Subauroral Plasma Flows in Geomagnetic Storms

by Susan Trumbore 12 September 202218 October 2022

Geomagnetic storms induce fast plasma flows next to the aurora and affect space weather. Lin et al. explain the origin of a special “dawnside” plasma stream that occurs only during extreme storm events.

Side-by-side images show fish-eye-style photographs of a starry evening sky illuminated by different subauroral events. The left image shows a SAR arc, a reddish arc that spans the sky. Beneath the arc the sky transitions from bright green at the horizon to purple and is partially obscured by clouds. The right image shows a STEVE phenomenon. Part of the red SAR arc is still visible but is much fainter and more of a pink color than its original red. The green and purple sky is more muted in color, and more stars and the band of the Milky Way are now visible. In both images, the silhouette of some shrubs is visible.

Research Spotlights

From SAR Arc to STEVE: An Atmospheric Evolution

by Alexandra K. Scammell 6 September 20227 September 2022

A new study reports the first observation of a stable auroral red arc evolving into a strong thermal emission velocity enhancement during a geomagnetic storm.

Allen Foster at the South Pole Telescope in summer 2019–2020

Features

Allen Foster: Greasing Telescope Gears During a 7-Month-Long Night

by Santiago Flórez 25 July 202222 December 2022

While overwintering in Antarctica, Foster maintains the South Pole Telescope facilities.

Three auroral images taken by a citizen scientist in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Editors' Highlights

Uncovering the Mysterious STEVE Aurora

by Gang Lu 7 June 202214 September 2022

Scientists present the first direct observations on the rapid evolution of a bright red auroral arc into a thin white-mauve arc known as STEVE.

Example of how, given the presence of aurora, an over-the-horizon radar based in Scotland might be used to track an aircraft at 10 km altitude in a region to the north.

Editors' Highlights

Can Aurora Enhance Radar Monitoring of Arctic Aviation?

by Michael A. Hapgood 2 February 202215 March 2022

Enhanced E-region ionization produced by the aurora can be used to reflect signals from over-the-horizon radars and thus enable those radars to better monitor aviation in Arctic regions.

An Isinglass sounding rocket launch from Poker Flat, Alaska

Research Spotlights

Converting Auroral Observations into 3D Structures

by Morgan Rehnberg 3 January 20222 February 2022

Using 1D and 2D data sources as model constraints yields fine-scale insights into real-world aurorae.

Artist rendering of magnetic reconnection taking place in the Earth's magnetosphere

Editors' Vox

Hidden Atmospheric Particles Sculpt Near-Earth Space Environment

by S. Toledo, M. André, N. Aunai, C.R. Chappell, J. Dargent, S.A. Fuselier, A. Glocer, D.B. Graham, S. Haaland, M. Hesse, L.M. Kistler, B. Lavraud, W. Li, T. E. Moore, P. Tenfjord and S.K. Vines 22 September 202110 October 2021

Charged particles escape our atmosphere following Earth’s magnetic field and constitute a main source of matter that modulates Sun-Earth interactions.

The location of Jupiter’s northern aurorae, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope

Research Spotlights

Could Low-Altitude Reconnection Power Jupiter’s Polar Aurorae?

by Morgan Rehnberg 21 September 202127 January 2022

Magnetic reconnection events less than 2 Jovian radii above the planet’s cloud tops could explain why Juno has yet to observe a source for Jupiter’s polar aurore.

Researchers present a new technique for estimating magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions at Earth’s poles.

Research Spotlights

Filling the Gaps in the SuperDARN Archive

by Kate Wheeling 13 September 202121 October 2021

Researchers present a new pattern-finding technique to better estimate missing data on ionospheric plasma velocities.

Features from AGU Journals