The Bastille Day storm of 15-16 July 2000 was a spectacular solar storm event that led to aurora seen as far south as Mexico. IMAGE satellite observations from space had a ring-side seat in viewing the way our upper atmosphere reacted to this storm. The most striking events seen were the penetration of the ionospheric electric field by the storm's particles, and a major overloading of the cross polar cap voltage.

(2001: Gang Lu, Arthur D Richmond, Thomas J Immel, Harald U Frey, Frederick J Rich, Marc R Hairston, David S Evans, Mitchell Lane )

• Read the AGU Abstract
• View a Movie
• Learn about [FUV]

Aurora -The lights often seen in the northern skies at night, which take the form of green, red or bluish clouds or curtains of light. Northern people have watched these in wonder for centuries. They are produced by currents of charged particles from distant regions of the magnetic field.

Ionosphere - A region in the upper atmosphere between 100 and 1000 kilometers containing charged particles (electrons and ions) that reflect low-frequency radio waves emitted from ground transmitters. An essential component of AM and short wave radio broadcasting.

IMAGE experiments

• IMAGE
• [LENA]...[MENA]...[HENA]
• [EUV]
• [FUV]
• [RPI]

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