Natural auroras are luminous plasma phenomena produced by collisions between solar wind charged particles and Earth's magnetosphere, while artificial auroras refer to controllable luminous phenomena simulated by human plasma technology. This paper sorts out three mainstream artificial aurora generation technologies: ionospheric heating, satellite electron beam injection and near-space plasma release. The study adopts case analysis and comparative analysis to compare the luminous scale, energy consumption and operation difficulty of the three technical routes, and systematically analyzes the scientific and engineering application values of artificial auroras, as well as potential ionospheric disturbance risks. The results show that ionospheric high-frequency heating is the most mature scheme for large-area artificial aurora with low energy cost but limited brightness; electron beam injection can form high-brightness aurora but has high launch cost; plasma balloon technology is low-cost and easy to implement yet only generates short-lived small-scale aurora. This research supplements horizontal comparative data of multiple artificial aurora technologies and provides reference for low-interference artificial aurora experiment design.
Research Article
Open Access