Cause of Aurora Borealis Confirmed

An anonymous reader writes "There are reports that satellites have aided scientists in confirming why the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) exists. 'New data from NASA's Themis mission, a quintet of satellites launched this winter, found the energy comes from a stream of charged particles from the sun flowing like a current through twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting Earth's upper atmosphere to the sun. The energy is then abruptly released in the form of a shimmering display of lights.'"

Comments

The More Important Discovery

[pln2bz]

The interesting new information is actually the following:

"THEMIS encountered its first magnetic rope on May 20, 2007," says Sibeck. "It was very large, about as wide as Earth, and located approximately 40,000 miles above Earth's surface in a region called the magnetopause." The magnetopause is where the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field meet and push against one another like sumo wrestlers locked in combat. There, the rope formed and unraveled in just a few minutes, providing a brief but significant conduit for solar wind energy. Other ropes quickly followed: "They seem to occur all the time," says Sibeck.

What happens within the laboratory with *electrical* plasmas is that the plasma will tend to form filaments of charged particles. It is a natural state of the plasma. Furthermore, multiple filaments will tend to possess long-range attraction and short-range repulsion with one another. In other words, they will twist around one another without fully combining. This can be observed by any layperson by looking closely at the point where your novelty plasma globe's filaments touch the glass. What appears as one filament from a distance is in fact two filaments twisting around one another like a rope that unwind with contact to glass. This roped structure within the laboratory constitutes a flow of charged particles, and as those charged particles move across the rope in response to voltage potentials, this flow of charged particles will in turn create helical magnetic fields around the filaments. Maxwell's Equations demand it.

The observation of a roped magnetic structure connecting the Sun and Earth is extremely important because we know from our laboratory experiences with plasmas that rope-like structures occur when the plasma is electrical. I'm very curious what the response will be from the astrophysical community about this *structure*. Will they argue that the similarity in morphologies is actually coincidental?

If so, somebody should share the talking points with NASA, because they appear to be off-message ...

From http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/auroras/northern_lights.html:

"THEMIS also has observed a number of small explosions in Earth's magnetic bow shock. "The bow shock is like the bow wave in front of a boat," explained Sibeck. "It is where the solar wind first feels the effects of Earth's magnetic field. Sometimes a burst of electrical current within the solar wind will hit the bow shock and--Bang! We get an explosion."

Re:The More Important Discovery

[pln2bz]

Every single person who doubts that this is more than coincidental can surely be excused for the sole reason that the implications are kind of hard to get a full handle on. It's really kind of shocking. But, it's important that people be aware of the possibility of Birkeland Currents in space, and even more, I think perhaps people should just accept that there is a distinct possibility that we just live in interesting times.

Re:The More Important Discovery

[mgmirkin]

"So to sum up your entire post for those that come after me, you are saying "electric universe rules"." -Kagura

No, I think that what he's saying is something to the effect that this shouldn't be news to anybody, but the fact that it is happens to be disheartening.

Specifically, Kristian Birkeland predicted this in his book Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition (section 2, I believe).

Specifically, if one references the images contained in the book, things become clear quite quickly:
Chapter VI: On Possible Electric Phenomena in Solar Systems and Nebulae

Take, for instance, an extreme case of his terella in operation:
Figure 259

How do you like them "flux ropes?"

This image hows the terella operating in a mode that exposes the electrical currents for what they are. In this shot, the currents are in "arc mode" (akin to sparks or lightning). Whereas the auroras around Earth are akin to a "glow mode" discharge. Birkeland currents in interplanetary space are a "dark mode" discharge (IE, not glowing, but still slowly transferring electric charges in a "dark" current, much like an electrical wire, but in this case a plasma filament). Look it up. Standard plasma physics.

In essence, the solar system can be likened to a virtual "plasma globe." In the "plasma globe" model of the solar system, the sun is the central electrode. The planets are akin to people pressing their fingers to the outer glass because it's cool to watch the filaments connect to the spot you touch. The "magnetic flux ropes" are akin to the plasma filaments connecting the central electrode to the outer glass where fingers touch. The "magnetic flux ropes" are a byproduct of the electrical current (flow of charged particles) connecting the sun to the Earth.

Here's a colorized version of a plasma globe I made for reference:
Plasma globe "sun"

So, yeah, it's something like that.

I really wish it would let me put images in this thing. Ohh well, I said it better over on BAUT anyway (assuming they don't immediately MOD it out of existence, for being presumptuous enough to mention astronomers' apparent blindspot regarding electricity in space).

Did I forget to mention NASA's own rather candid admission that there's an electrical link between the sun and the Earth? "Flux rope" pumps 650,000 Amp current into the arctic! (30 kV battery in space) (Noted on this page: Multimedia for the Press Event for THEMIS.)

In all, what Pln2bz says is quite sage, and I suggest that we listen to him... Rather carefully. He may not be quite as "insane" as some think. It's quite necessary to review the argument based on its merits, and see where it leads. Might just turn science on its ear.

After all, we've just re-learned that Birkeland currents power the magnetosphere. This was confirmed in t he 60s / 70s when we started shooting satellites into space, and it was predicted in the 1900s (appx 1902-1903 was when Birkeland went north; 1908 was when he published Norewgian Aurora Polaris Expedition, to great acclaim pretty much everywhere, except England and America, where an electrically neutral/sterile cosmology had already taken hold, unfortunately, setting us back a

Re:The More Important Discovery

[mgmirkin]

Okay then...

Here's a question for the astrophsycists, if they know of "things electric" (such as the Birkeland currents powering the auroras), has anyone drawn out the solar electric circuit(s)? If so, where are they diagrammed (can you point me to them, I'd love to see them, as they're never discussed in public; so far as I know)?

If not, why not. If astrophysicists realize this is essentially an electrical engineering problem, why has it not been diagrammed as such and "solved," so to speak? Why do scientists and/or news releases always seem to exclaim surprise about all things electrical they discover in the solar system?

Likewise, why do so many scientists, papers, and news releases still talk in terms of "winds," "rains," and "shock fronts," instead of Electrical Engineering terms like "plasma filaments," "Birkeland currents," "double layers," "closed circuits," "inductors," "capacitors," "relaxation oscillators," "plasma sheaths," "dark mode discharge" (Birkeland currents; while between the sun and Earth), "glow mode discharge" (auroras, sun's photosphere), "arc mode discharge" (lightning, solar prominences, coronal loops & flares), "anodes," "cathodes," etc.

It seems like the astronomers' language is still rooted in terms from the Victorian era. Or is there just a language barrier between various disciplines and they're all just talking about the same things (in their own specialized terms)? If so, how do we get everyone to use the same language for the same things, so we can recognize the same things in the same ways, when talking between disciplines?

Just wondering, please don't take offense. It's an interesting topic to me. =o]

Maybe the EE's and astrophysicists just need to sit down at the same table (a really big table, with the best and brightest), compare notes on "how things work in the lab" vs. "how things work in space," and come up with a set of standard terms and definitions? Where they can't agree, perhaps more research is needed... Frankly, I think that such a "meeting of the minds to compare notes across multi-disciplinary lines" should be a yearly thing. If it doesn't already happen. Just to keep everyone on the same page.

Cheers,
~Michael Gmirkin

Obviously

[Mr Bubble]

it's dust.

Climate Implications?

[tjstork]

Well, does it follow that there might be climate implications from um, having this giant sun literally plugged into the earth? It seems to me that having an electrical current running between two giant celestial bodies ought to have some impact in terms of climate.

So let me get this straight

[427_ci_505]

We've always hypothesized this, but just got evidence/confirmation?

Or am I misinterpreting it here?

(I was about to tag this as being very old news before this).

Happy Birthday

[plasmana]

Happy Birthday Kristian Birkeland. 140 years old today! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkeland_current