{"id":246875,"date":"2026-11-08T18:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T00:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/how-space-weather-powers-auroras-in-the-sky-and-threatens-power-grids-on-the-ground"},"modified":"2026-11-08T18:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T00:14:08","slug":"how-space-weather-powers-auroras-in-the-sky-and-threatens-power-grids-on-the-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/how-space-weather-powers-auroras-in-the-sky-and-threatens-power-grids-on-the-ground","title":{"rendered":"How space weather powers auroras in the sky and threatens power grids on the ground"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe title=\"How space weather powers auroras in the sky and threatens power grids on the ground\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JZcSEdz54k0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>An aurora is one of nature\u2019s most spectacular light shows: It looks like green or red curtains rippling across the night sky. When viewed from the ground, this colorful display might seem far away and disconnected from anything happening on Earth\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n<p>But while these beautiful displays are part of a much larger process known as \u201cspace weather\u201d\u2014changes in Earth\u2019s space environment caused by activity from the sun\u2014they\u2019re closely connected to electric currents that can flow through the ground under your feet.<\/p>\n<p>Space weather can create a spectacle in the sky, while also driving electric currents that can damage power grids and other technological systems on the ground. <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=rDaeLB8AAAAJ&hl=en\" target=\"_blank\">Space physicists<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=fT_ev8sAAAAJ&hl=en\" target=\"_blank\">like us<\/a> want to understand how space weather can affect infrastructure on Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An aurora is one of nature\u2019s most spectacular light shows: It looks like green or red curtains rippling across the night sky. When viewed from the ground, this colorful display might seem far away and disconnected from anything happening on Earth\u2019s surface. But while these beautiful displays are part of a much larger process known [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,219,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","category-physics","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}