Home▸Physics & Mechanics▸Aurora Borealis Physics Simulator

🌌 Aurora Borealis Physics

Interactive 3D Earth with a magnetosphere where adjusting solar wind intensity shows charged particles funnelling along magnetic field lines into the atmosphere, exciting gases into simulated auroral colours.

Physics & Mechanics3DModerate60 FPS💨 Air & Wind 🌍 Earth ⚡ Plasma

A 3D Earth sits inside a magnetosphere shaped by the solar wind: charged particles stream in from the Sun, most are deflected around the compressed magnetopause, and a fraction funnel down dipole field lines into the polar atmosphere, lighting up simulated auroral curtains.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Southward IMF Bz opens a reconnection channel that lets more solar wind particles funnel along field lines into the cusp; brighter, wider auroral curtains and a higher simulated Kp index follow, mirroring real space-weather coupling.

🎮 How to Use

Raise solar wind intensity and push Bz southward (negative) to compress the magnetopause and drive more particles down to the poles. Switch the emitting gas layer to see how altitude changes auroral colour, and rotate the view to see both poles.

💡 Did You Know?

Auroral green comes from molecular oxygen glowing near 100–150km, red from atomic oxygen above 200km, and rarer blue-violet fringes from ionised nitrogen below 100km — the same three-layer recipe reproduced by the curtain colours here.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 3D magnetosphere where varying solar-wind intensity shows how charged particles funnel along field lines and collide with atmospheric gases to paint the aurora.

aurora-borealismagnetospheresolar-windplasma-physicscharged-particlesphysics

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install