Negatively charged solitary potential areas (ion holes) are generated in collisional ionosphere by the incident energetic electrons. Those negative potential regions are ionospheric driver of discrete aurora. When the ion hole becomes sheet-like structure (auroral arc), shear flows develop in the sheet to form spirals.

Auroral spirals known as northern lights are a spectacular light show in the polar night sky. Internal processes in the polar ionosphere initiate northern lights by producing charge separations along the field lines. Parallel electric fields generated above the ionosphere by charge separations are steady-state electric fields. They occasionally discharge to produce northern lights, analogous to lightning flash in a thunderstorm.

Transverse electric fields transmitted from the magnetosphere and those generated by the neutral winds yield a local breakdown of the charge neutrality at the boundaries between the thermosphere and mesosphere. The breakdown may create parallel electric fields in the thermosphere to produce spiral auroras and outflows. This explanation supposes an auroral generator located not in a distant space, but rather in our much nearer upper atmosphere.

Auroral spirals known as northern lights are a spectacular light show in the polar night sky. We show that auroral spirals are produced in the polar ionosphere by the internal processes that ensure quasi-neutral equilibrium of the polar ionosphere which is often violated during field line dipolarization. The internal driver produces spiral auroras in a manner different from the field line mapping scenario.