Northern Lights? Uh so whats up now?

Question

I've always known this to be true:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(astronomy)

"Auroras are produced by the collision of charged particles from Earth's magnetosphere, mostly electrons but also protons and heavier particles, with atoms and molecules of Earth's upper atmosphere (at altitudes above 80 km). The particles have energies of 1 to 100 keV. They originate from the Sun and arrive at the vicinity of Earth in the relatively low-energy solar wind. When the trapped magnetic field of the solar wind is favourably oriented (principally southwards) it reconnects with Earth's magnetic field, and solar particles enter the magnetosphere and are swept to the magnetotail. Further magnetic reconnection accelerates the particles towards Earth."

But wait, thats completely wrong? what gives???

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080724/ap_on_sc/sci_northern_lights

Answer 1

Apparently there may be more than one cause for the same event or there may be seperate causes for what would appear as similar phenomena.

In the recent study, magnetic reconnection was the cause of the phenomenon observed but it does not neccessarity discount other possible causes of the same or similar phenomena.