... Files in red?history) . ... Auroral Currents . 25H. Birkeland Currents . ... As noted earlier Kristian Birkeland, reporting in 1903 on his expeditions to the auroral zone, proposed that magnetic disturbances accompanying the aurora were caused by large electric currents flowing down the length of auroral formations. ... In later years these currents became known as the auroral electrojets , and considerable debate ranged over their cause and the way their circuit might be completed. ...