Ionosphere

The five-minute trip will be to study a global electrical current called the dynamo that sweeps through the ionosphere.

Outlining his findings in a study published by the journal Geology, Menge suggests that electrically charged volcanic ash from the devastating eruption short-circuited the ionosphere, which produced the clouds that dumped the soaking rains on Napoleon and his troops at Waterloo.

Solar radiation is what ionizes the ionosphere.

Dave frowned as he tried to answer. "Well, I suppose the atmosphere is oxygen and nitrogen, mostly; then there's the ionosphere and the ozone layer. As I remember, the color of the sky is due to the scattering of light—light rays being diffracted in the air."

Solar storms drive currents of millions of amps through the electrically conductive upper layer of our atmosphere (known as the ionosphere). These currents, which can fluctuate rapidly, drive powerful magnetic disturbances at the Earth's surface that in turn induce electrical currents in the planet's crust.