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Scientists Find Trigger For Northern Lights

Posted by timothy on from the when-aliens-are-tickled dept.

daftna writes "The New York Times (registration required) is reporting that NASA researchers 'have identified the trigger for the colorful electrical storms in the polar regions ... Scientists knew two events that occur in the tail of the magnetic field during substorms, but did not know which event acted as the trigger for the auroras.'"

14 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. That's great by Centurix · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just don't leave the trigger lying around, anyone could find that and we'd be up to our armpits in borealis...

    --
    Task Mangler
    1. Re:That's great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      How many times can you pull the trigger before you run out of borealis?

      When you run out, can you switch to australis?

      I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six borealis or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 aurora, the most powerful light show in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

  2. Lies! by ilovegeorgebush · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's not electrical storms, it's dust! Don't let the Magisterium tell you otherwise!

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    ilovegeorgebush
  3. Can we haz energy? by PetiePooo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Each substorm generates a current of about one million to two million amps over one to two hours, or a total energy equivalent to a magnitude-5 or magnitude-6 earthquake, Dr. Angelopoulos said.

    The question is, can we harness this energy? Is this a form of the limitless solar energy that we can enslave to our use, or are we limited to the radiated visible and near-visible spectrum?

    And if this is too far up and unavailable to us surface-dwellers, is it something that the LEO/MEO satellites could use for propulsion or power? I thoght I remembered reading something about a mag field powered satellite somewhere...

    1. Re:Can we haz energy? by Goobermunch · · Score: 4, Interesting

      We've been trying to put the Aurora to use for years. Back in the 60's, my father spent a lot of time in Homer, Alaska working on a Stanford Research Institute project to determine whether we could use the Aurora Borealis as a distant early warning system to detect Soviet transpolar ICBM launches. The theory was that, because the Aurora was a big electromagnetic storm, tossing a large hunk of ferromagnetic metal through it would cause a disruption that could be detected over the horizon.

      I don't what the ultimate results of the project were (though I suspect that it was not successful since we didn't use the aurora for that purpose), but Dad fell in love with the environment and the community up in Alaska. The place had such an impact that he made my mother promise to move there before they got married. That's why I grew up with this as the view from my bedroom window.

      --AC

  4. That was quick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    THEMIS launched in the first half of 2007. I remember because my plasma physics professor canceled class the day of the launch and invited us to the launch party...

    The cause of the aurora borealis is something that has not been adequately explained up to now. It seems that magnetic reconnection phenomena in the tail are the trigger, but where exactly? That's what THEMIS was designed to figure out.

    This is a very interesting result for plasma physicists and astrophysicists.

    http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/themis/flash.html
    http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/main/

  5. Re:Huh? Dilbert speak from a "scientist" by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 4, Informative

    WTF does that mean?

    Scientists have been using the phrase Paradigm Shift for years. Marketing types took it up because it sounded scholarly.

    "This defies our old paradigms," means "this does not fit into our current sets of theories & hypothesis...."

    --
    There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
  6. Teach the controversy! by UrinalPooper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the Dover school board was run by Vikings they'd have to teach this theory alongside the 'theory' that the Northern Lights are the glow from Asgard.

  7. Re:Huh? Dilbert speak from a "scientist" by Ignis+Flatus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    it means they were wrong

  8. Scientists Find Trigger For Northern Lights by TheCybernator · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes. And its called the SUN.

    --
    Eclipse PDE and Me
  9. as per Stargate: by irtza · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can't be true. The Asgard went instinct, but not before transferring their wealth of knowledge to man kind. If it was from the Asgard, they would have been gone when the replicators got them!

    --
    When all else fails, try.
  10. Re:Huh? Dilbert speak from a "scientist" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    A Paradigm is 20 cents.

  11. The result, for those who care... by jnik · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's buried at the end of the article, but Near Earth Neutral Line wins, current disruption loses. The real kicker is that the aurora were detected before the cross-tail current was disrupted, so the auroral currents are apparently not caused by closure of the cross-tail current. That should be very interesting.

    The mission planners had the foresight to include a substantial ground-observation component, which made this second result possible.

  12. Re:Huh? Dilbert speak from a "scientist" by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Informative

    Some moderators will mod a funny post "informative" to counter the negate karma of others who mod it "offtopic" or "troll". Funny mods give no karma.

    WHOOSH!

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year