Scientists are working to understand how magnetic currents from the sun spread beneath Earth's crust when the northern lights dance across the sky. Their goal is to tame its "dark twin" and prevent damage to our power grid.

The activity on the sun is at its strongest right now. Periods of such intense activity occur about every 11 years and follow a well-known cycle.

But it's not the colors in the sky that captivate the scientists. While the northern lights splash their colorful displays across the sky, scientists are studying its dark twin: geomagnetic storms.

The magnetic storms that come from the sun induce strong voltage fluctuations, "shaking" their way underground and outward. The induced currents can cause trouble for some transformer stations, but not all, just a few. Some stations are located in more sensitive locations than others. Why is that?

This is one of the questions that researchers are seeking answers to. To that end, they are studying how magnetic storms induce electrical currents in the ground.