Aurorae over Canada

Auroral displays over Canada pictured from the International Space Station from an altitude of 400 kilometres. The Manicouagan impact crater is visible in the foreground.

Thanks to observations performed in 2001 and 2002, ESA’s Cluster mission has established that high-speed flows of electrified gas, known as bursty bulk flows, in the Earth’s magnetic field are the carriers of decisive amounts of mass, energy and magnetic perturbation towards the Earth during magnetic substorms. When substorms occur, energetic particles strike our atmosphere, causing auroras to shine.