A fleet of NASA spacecraft has discovered the existence of giant magnetic ropes (a twisted bundle of magnetic fields), that connects Earth's upper atmosphere directly to the sun, among other findings.
The discovery was a result of the analysis of the spectacular eruptions of Northern Lights called "substorms" and the source of their power.
The magnetopause is where the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field meet and push against one another. There, the rope formed and unraveled in just a few minutes, providing a brief but significant conduit for solar wind energy.
Among other findings, the mission known as THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) observed the dynamics of a rapidly developing substorm, and witnessed small explosions in the outskirts of Earth's magnetic field.
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