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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Scientists Reveal How a Mysterious Pulsating Aurora Formed During 2024’s Monster Solar Storm

A sudden shock from the Sun can send powerful disturbances racing through space and directly affect Earth’s magnetic environment. When these interplanetary (IP) shocks reach Earth, they can rapidly compress the planet’s magnetosphere—the vast region controlled by Earth’s magnetic field—and trigger spectacular changes in the aurora.

A new study by Motoba, Ebihara and Ogawa provides an important clue about how one such phenomenon, known as shock aurora, is produced. Using observations from the ground and the THEMIS spacecraft, researchers were able to connect activity in the outer magnetosphere with rapidly changing auroral emissions observed over Antarctica.

The observations were made during the beginning of the powerful May 2024 superstorm, when the spacecraft happened to be positioned in a particularly useful region of space, about 8–10 Earth radii (RE) from Earth.

What happens when an interplanetary shock reaches Earth?

Interplanetary shocks are abrupt disturbances travelling through the solar wind. They can be produced by powerful solar eruptions and can cause sudden changes in the speed, density and magnetic field of the solar wind.

When such a shock reaches Earth, it strikes the planet’s magnetosphere and can compress it within a short period. This sudden compression can launch waves and other disturbances through the magnetosphere, eventually affecting the ionosphere and producing visible auroral activity.

Aurorae are normally associated with energetic particles entering Earth’s upper atmosphere along magnetic field lines. These particles collide with atmospheric gases, causing them to emit light. However, the exact processes responsible for some short-lived auroral forms remain an active area of research.

One of these forms is shock aurora, which can appear shortly after an IP shock reaches Earth.

A remarkable two-step auroral display

The researchers studied an unusual event observed at South Pole Station using a white-light all-sky camera. The camera provided a broad view of the sky and captured the aurora as it developed following the arrival of the IP shock.

The aurora showed a striking two-step evolution.

First, a diffuse auroral emission appeared within only about one to two minutes after the shock arrived. This initial emission spread across the dayside auroral region.

It was then followed by a more structured discrete aurora, which developed suddenly and contained prominent ray-like structures.

This rapid transformation shows how quickly the magnetosphere-ionosphere system can respond to an external disturbance coming from the solar wind.

But the most important discovery came from the camera’s unusually rapid observations.

Pulsating aurora hidden inside shock aurora

The all-sky camera collected images at a rate of 2 Hz, meaning it recorded two images every second. This high time resolution allowed the researchers to detect variations that could have been missed by slower observations.

Within the initial diffuse shock aurora, they identified signatures of pulsating aurora (PsA).

Pulsating aurora is characterized by auroral brightness that repeatedly increases and decreases, producing a flickering or pulsating appearance. The phenomenon is generally associated with energetic electrons interacting with Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Finding these pulsations embedded within shock aurora was significant because it offered a new opportunity to connect what was happening in space with what was being observed from the ground.

THEMIS provides the missing space-based view

Ground-based auroral observations can reveal what happens in the ionosphere, but they do not directly show the physical processes occurring in the magnetosphere that produce the aurora.

This is where the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) spacecraft became especially important.

During the event, THEMIS was located in or around the outer dayside magnetosphere, approximately 8–10 RE from Earth. This region was considered to be close to the potential source region of the aurora observed over the South Pole.

The spacecraft detected several dramatic changes following the IP shock.

These included rapid compression of the magnetosphere, fast-mode waves, temporary crossings of the magnetopause and subsequent damping oscillations.

Together, these observations showed that the arrival of the shock produced a highly dynamic response in the outer magnetosphere.

Chorus waves may hold the key

Among the most important observations was the strengthening or excitation of chorus emissions.

Chorus waves are naturally occurring electromagnetic waves found in Earth’s magnetosphere. They can interact strongly with energetic electrons and change the motion and energy of these particles.

The researchers found that the IP shock excited or intensified chorus emissions around the time when pulsating aurora was observed.

This provides an important possible connection: the shock may have disturbed the magnetosphere, triggering stronger chorus waves, which then interacted with energetic electrons and helped produce the rapid luminosity variations seen in the pulsating aurora.

In simple terms, the sequence may have looked something like this:

Solar-wind shock → magnetospheric compression → chorus-wave activity → energetic electron scattering → pulsating aurora.

This chain provides a possible explanation for how an event originating in interplanetary space can produce rapidly changing light in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Why the discovery matters

Scientists have proposed several mechanisms for shock aurora since the 1990s. However, establishing which physical process produces a particular type of shock aurora has been difficult because researchers rarely have simultaneous measurements from both the auroral region and its source region in space.

The May 2024 event offered an unusually valuable opportunity.

THEMIS was positioned in the outer magnetosphere at approximately the right time, while the South Pole camera simultaneously observed the auroral response. This conjugate space-ground observation allowed researchers to compare changes in the magnetosphere with changes in the aurora.

The observations provide evidence supporting a connection between IP shock-driven chorus waves and transient pulsating aurora on the dayside.

Importantly, the study does not simply show that an IP shock can produce an aurora. It provides a possible physical pathway explaining how the disturbance can be transferred through the magnetosphere and eventually appear as changing light in the upper atmosphere.

A better understanding of Sun-Earth interactions

The findings highlight the complexity of the connection between the Sun and Earth. A disturbance that begins millions of kilometres away can rapidly alter Earth’s magnetic environment and produce visible effects near the planet’s poles.

They also demonstrate why simultaneous observations from spacecraft and ground-based instruments are so valuable. Spacecraft can measure magnetic fields, waves and particles in the magnetosphere, while cameras on Earth can reveal how those changes appear in the ionosphere.

The May 2024 superstorm therefore provided more than a spectacular auroral event. It offered scientists a rare natural experiment for studying the chain of processes linking solar-wind shocks to Earth’s upper atmosphere.

The study by Motoba, Ebihara and Ogawa suggests that shock-enhanced chorus waves in the outer dayside magnetosphere may play an important role in initiating transient pulsating aurora embedded within diffuse shock aurora.

Further observations will be needed to determine how commonly this mechanism operates and how it interacts with other processes responsible for shock aurora. Nevertheless, the results represent an important step toward understanding how sudden solar disturbances travel through Earth’s magnetic environment and ultimately light up the polar sky.

Reference: T. Motoba, Y. Ebihara, Y. Ogawa, "Dayside Shock Aurora at the Beginning of the May 2024 Superstorm: South Pole–THEMIS Spacecraft Conjunction", Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 130, Issue 8. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JA034054


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