Aug 14 2008
From The Space Library
Researchers led by Vassilis Angelopoulos of the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), announced in the journal Science that their team had demonstrated that magnetic reconnection in Earth’s magnetotail produces substorms that cause the aurora borealis to brighten and to move. Magnetic reconnection is a common phenomenon in which stretched magnetic lines suddenly snap into a new shape. Angelopoulos’s team made the discovery using data from a 26 February 2008 substorm. NASA’s Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms mission (THERMIS) had collected the data. THERMIS tracked the beginnings of substorms, using five satellites and 20 ground observatories to make synchronized observations every four days. Scientists were interested in studying the origins of substorms because they often occur in conjunction with strong space storms, which can interfere with human activities, such as radio communication and GPS signals.
NASA, “NASA Satellites Discover What Powers Northern Lights,” news release 08-185, 24 July 2008, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/jul/HQ_08185_THEMIS.html (accessed 21 July 2011); see also Vassilis Angelopoulos et al., “Tail Reconnection Triggering Substorm Onset,” Science 321, no. 5891 (15 August 2008): 931-935.
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