NASA Spacecraft Uncover Mystery Behind Auroral Beads

A special type of aurora, draped east-west across the night sky like a glowing pearl necklace, is helping scientists better understand the science of auroras and their powerful drivers out in space. Known as auroral beads, these lights often show up just before large auroral displays, which are caused by electrical storms in space called substorms. Until now, scientists weren’t sure if auroral beads are somehow connected to other auroral displays as a phenomenon in space that precedes substorms, or if they are caused by disturbances closer to Earth’s atmosphere.

But powerful new computer models, combined with observations from NASA’s Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms – THEMIS – mission, have provided the first direct evidence of the events in space that lead to the appearance of these beads and demonstrated the important role they play in our local space environment.

Music: “Intrigues and Plots” and “Repetitive Motion” by Laurent Dury [SACEM] from Universal Production Music

Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Joy Ng (USRA): Lead Producer
Mara Johnson-Groh (SESDA): Producer
Kareem Sorathia (JHUAPL): Scientist
Slava Merkin (JHUAPL): Scientist
Evgeny Panov (OAW): Scientist