Rare 'polar rain' aurora seen from Earth for the first time

[Admin]

Seen for the first time from the ground, the polar rain aurora produced an eerie green glow captured on camera in Norway.

Rare 'polar rain' aurora seen from Earth for the first time : Read more

 

[Unclear Engineer]

The article says
"The clinching evidence was that the DMSP satellites only saw the polar rain aurora over Earth's north magnetic pole, which is tilted towards the sun during Northern Hemisphere winter."

The "true" North Pole is tilted away from the Sun during the Northern Hemisphere winter - that is why it is winter.

But, the magnetic North Pole is in the Canada arctic, currently moving westward. So, I am trying to figure out if it could be "tilted towards the Sun" during winter, in some way. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_magnetic_pole for the magnetic north pole position.

Given its latitude of about 86 degrees north, it seems to me that it has to be tilted more toward the Sun in summer than in winter.

Could this really be an editorial screw-up that should have read something like "The aurora was only seen at the North Pole because the South Pole is tilted toward the Sun and thus in daylight during the Norther Hemisphere winter."

 

[druffolo]

The article says
"The clinching evidence was that the DMSP satellites only saw the polar rain aurora over Earth's north magnetic pole, which is tilted towards the sun during Northern Hemisphere winter."

The "true" North Pole is tilted away from the Sun during the Northern Hemisphere winter - that is why it is winter.

But, the magnetic North Pole is in the Canada arctic, currently moving westward. So, I am trying to figure out if it could be "tilted towards the Sun" during winter, in some way. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_magnetic_pole for the magnetic north pole position.

Given its latitude of about 86 degrees north, it seems to me that it has to be tilted more toward the Sun in summer than in winter.

Could this really be an editorial screw-up that should have read something like "The aurora was only seen at the North Pole because the South Pole is tilted toward the Sun and thus in daylight during the Norther Hemisphere winter."

Indeed, that is a mistake in the article - the North Pole is tilted away from the Sun during winter.

It is correct that for ground-based observers, it must be nighttime. From space, auroral emissions were detected from both polar regions.

The Science Advances article (see link in the space.com article) explains why the polar rain auroral emission occurs at one pole or the other:
"Polar rain precipitation generally occurs in only one hemisphere depending on the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). If the IMF is directed toward (away from) Earth, then the polar rain aurora is observed only in the Northern (Southern) Hemisphere. This is because the field lines of the IMF directed toward (away from) Earth can be connected to the open field line from the polar cap in the Northern (Southern) Hemisphere through magnetic reconnection in the high-latitude part of the magnetotail."