Kristian Birkeland

Kristian Birkeland was a Norwegian scientist known for his pioneering work in understanding the auroras and Earth's magnetosphere. In the early 1900s, he proposed that charged particles from the Sun interact with Earth's magnetic field, creating spectacular lights in the sky, known as the Northern and Southern Lights, or auroras. Birkeland's innovative experiments demonstrated the link between solar activity and geomagnetic phenomena, laying the groundwork for the fields of solar physics and space plasma physics. His insights have significantly impacted our understanding of space weather and its effects on Earth.