Chorus keeps the diffuse aurora humming

摘要

The diffuse aurora, which is hard to see and has long been neglected despite its great importance to the energy budget of the upper atmosphere, has been attracting greater interest. On page 943 of this issue, Thorne and colleagues have finally solved the decades-old mystery of how the diffuse aurora manages to keep going: a type of very low-frequency plasma wave called a chorus wave does the job.