A Group of Scientists Want to Launch a Satellite to Make an Artificial Aurora

The Northern Lights are more than just something pretty to look at on your next Canadian camping trip. They indicate changes in our planet’s magnetic field and potential threats from solar flares. Scientists think Northern Lights can tell us even more, but to find out, they'll need to do something that until now has been impossible: create their own. The Earth’s atmosphere is filled with layers. The bottom layer—where those of us who don't live in cloud cities spend most of our time—is called the troposphere. Above that is the stratosphere, the domain of aircraft and high-altitude balloons. Above that is the ionosphere, which is the highest layer of our atmosphere, and which sits at the border between our planet and space. More

(Source: Popular Mechanics - Oct 30)