This informative, well-illustrated tutorial explains how the NASA Aurora Current and Electrodynamics Structures II (ACES II) instrument measures the global electric circuit that underlies the aurora borealis. Launched in 2022 from the Andoya Space Center in northern Norway, instruments aboard ACES rockets take a complete snapshot of the auroral current at one moment in time. The strategy of ACES has been to fly two rockets -- a high flyer and a low flyer -- to measure particle flow at points of inflow and outflow. Together, scientists are learning more about a big mystery of auroral current: what happens at the "turnaround point" where inflow meets outflow to create a giant global electrical circuit (the auroral current). Highly recommended by the editors to accompany the Auroral Currents Lecture Tutorial.

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For students needing a refresher on the basics of aurora events, this short tutorial from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center could be quite useful. It defines the phenomenon, explains the different types of auroras, the Earth/Sun relationship that causes auroras, and why people on Earth should care about solar weather.

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This is the home page for the EZIE project, NASA's first mission to image the magnetic fingerprint of auroral electrojets -- intense electric currents flowing high above Earth's poles. Three small satellites the size of shoeboxes will be launched to record electrojet structure over space and time. The EZIE project includes three exceptional animated tutorials on the Earth-Sun connection, the electrojet currents, and the mission objectives. Don't miss the chance to participate in EZIE's Citizen Science program where your students (or people in your community) can capture and collect data with free magnetometer kits.

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This page features a straightforward open-access tutorial by University of Rochester astrophysicist Eric Blackman on the phenomenon known as the Zeeman Effect -- the splitting of spectral lines when an atom is exposed to an external magnetic field. So....why is this relevant for the study of auroral currents? Auroral currents move in electrojets. These jets create a huge magnetic field around them can cause atoms to behave differently. As the magnetic field strength increases, the energy level of an atom can transition into an excited state and undergo "splitting". This phenomenon can be accurately measured with spectrometers. It is an indirect measure of the current running through the electrojet. In the case of the EZIE mission (see above resource) the spectrometers are designed to look at splitting of oxygen molecules near electrojets.

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