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Portable Network Graphic  |  2003-02-25  |  60.6 KB  |  430x418  |  16-bit (1,950 colors)
   ocr: AURORAS During an auroral storm, intense electric currents flow in the ionosphere, causing geomagnetic disturbances. During such an event declination can vary by some degrees in a few minutes. The amplitude of the auroral currents can be as high as millions of amperes. It can be compared with currents in high voltage power systems, which are of the order of 500 amperes. The amount of energy is so high that momentarily it exceeds our energy consumption. Alas, ionospheric currents cannot be used as a direct energy source. Satellite images have demonstrated that the length of an arc may exfend ov ...