The nightside ionosphere, at latitudes away from the auroral zone, should have very little charged particle density, but it doesn’t. A new comprehensive study of satellite data explains why.
ionospheres
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Red and Green Aurora Stop and Go for Different Reasons
Green-line arc is found to be embedded within large-scale upward field aligned currents while red-line-only arc is found to be associated with low-energy precipitation bursts.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
No Underground Magma Ocean on Jupiter’s Fiery Moon?
A new study suggests alternative explanations for Io’s unusual magnetic field.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Bringing Clarity to What Drives Auroras
A new classification scheme helps researchers distinguish what accelerates the electrons that create auroras.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Mars Lost Steam
Solar winds are not the main culprit in stripping the planet’s atmosphere, a new study suggests.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Probing the Origin of a New Celestial Phenomenon
The first statistical study of STEVE events suggests that the appearance of these narrow ribbons of light is closely correlated with violent disturbances in Earth’s magnetosphere.
Posted inFeatures
How Did We Miss This? An Upper Atmospheric Discovery Named STEVE
Captured unknowingly by scientific instruments for years, a sky phenomenon is finally brought to the attention of researchers by eagle-eyed citizen scientists.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
High Resolution Imaging of Ionosphere by Lightning
The three-dimensional distribution of electron density in the Earth’s ionosphere could be obtained using the broadband radiation of naturally occurring lightning discharges.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Energetic Electrons Can Penetrate the Stratosphere
Precipitations of electrons with energies greater than 30 kiloelectron volts from the slot region penetrate at low altitude and can contribute to destroy ozone.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Seeing Waves: GNSS Tracking of Waves in the Upper Atmosphere
Dense GNSS networks enable scientists to track large-scale waves traveling through the upper atmosphere, away from sources in the auroral zone and the day/night terminator.