Aurora over South Pole Telescope in Antarctica FriendsofNASA.org: [No Audio] The aurora australis or southern lights over the U.S. South Pole Telescope (SPT) during an active period. Auroras are produced when the Earth's magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in both solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere) due to Earth's magn