Scientists Find the Trigger of the Northern Lights


	Scientists Find the Trigger of the Northern Lights

einbar

7-24-2008 10:18 PM

900 views

einbar says:

The researchers hope the finding will be a step in developing reliable forecasts of geomagnetic storms.

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7-25-2008 8:58 AM

papananook

maybe they can tell us why they "sing", also--it's very ...strange to actually hear the sky when they are going off.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/b0c1beca-d51e-4911-a08c-b5bbe9d447d3/EA3B7C56-788C-479E-B595-5BD1050E285B/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/25/science/aurora600.jpg" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/25/science/aurora600.jpg" style="font-size: 11px;">graphics8.nytimes.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/25/science/aurora600.jpg"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/graphics8.nytimes.com/img/E1143EDD-CCDE-4F0E-B0F8-629E3C4F848C" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/clip-icon.gif" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/science/space/25aurora.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/science/space/25aurora.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin" style="font-size: 11px;">www.nytimes.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/science/space/25aurora.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin">
<P>Researchers working on a <A 
title="More articles about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration." 
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_aeronautics_and_space_administration/index.html?inline=nyt-org">NASA</A> 
mission to understand the interplay of magnetic fields and charged particles 
blown outward from the <A title="More articles about the Sun." 
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/sun/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">Sun</A> 
have identified the trigger for the colorful electrical storms in the polar 
regions. They hope this is a step in developing reliable forecasts of 
geomagnetic storms that can disrupt satellites in orbit and power grids on the 
ground.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/science/space/25aurora.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin">“They happen every three or four hours,” </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/science/space/25aurora.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin"><P>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. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/science/space/25aurora.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin">scientists will try to figure out exactly why the magnetic field lines snap. 
With a better understanding of substorms, scientists would like to understand 
what happens during the larger storms. They hope to have better prediction 
methods working by the time the next peak of solar storms arrives between 2010 
and 2012.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/science/space/25aurora.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin">
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<H2><A href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1160495" 
target=_blank>Tail Reconnection Triggering Substorm Onset</A> (Science Express) 
</H2></DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/science/space/25aurora.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin"><DIV></DIV></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/EA3B7C56-788C-479E-B595-5BD1050E285B/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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