During one kind of solar storm called a coronal mass ejection, the Sun burps out a huge bubble of electrified gas that can travel through space at high speeds. There is a constant streaming solar wind and there are also solar storms. The protective magnetic field around Earth shields us from most of the energy and particles, and we don't even notice them.īut the Sun doesn't send the same amount of energy all the time. The Sun sends us more than heat and light it sends lots of other energy and small particles our way. This beautiful view of the aurora was taken from the International Space Station as it crossed over the southern Indian Ocean on September 17, 2011.Įven though auroras are best seen at night, they are actually caused by the Sun. If you're near the South Pole, it is called an aurora australis or the southern lights. If you're near the North Pole, it is called an aurora borealis or northern lights. Frequently there are beautiful light shows in the sky. If you're ever near the North or South Pole, you may be in for a very special treat. The Aurora this night was seen over many parts of the Northern Hemisphere north of the tropics, courtesy of an unusually large geomagnetic storm.Watch this video to learn all about auroras! Click here to download this video (1920x1080, 277 MB, video/mp4). This occurred on the night of November 5th and 6th, 2001 where amazing Aurora displays were seen as far south as Texas, Arizona and San Diego, CAĪn NWS employee formerly in Rapid City SD, took this spectacular picture of an Aurora Borealis display on November 5th, 2001. Displays this far south can occur when a large coronal mass ejection from the Sun creates a huge geomagnetic storm in the Earth's outer atmosphere. Although most common in the northern latitudes, the Aurora have been occasionally seen south of 35 degrees north latitude which encompasses the far southern United States. They also usually show a greater frequency during the winter months, where the nights are longer and the skies generally void of haze. Aurora displays usually increase during times of the solar maximum. This means in general that in these latitudes, the Aurora should occur on at least half of the nights throughout the year. In the northern hemisphere, there is a 50% or greater chance of seeing Aurora roughly between the latitudes of 55 to 80 degrees north. Although harmless to life on Earth, the Aurora can cause power disruptions in satellite communications and in radio/TV broadcasts.Īurora Displays: The northern latitudes (or southern latitudes in the southern hemisphere) see the greatest occurrence of the Aurora. The Aurora are constantly changing and moving in streams of light or curtains, because the process of how the Sun's ionized gas interacts with the Earth's magnetic field is very dynamic. As electrons pass through the neon tubing, they glow, thus producing the light in a neon sign. This is the same principal as how a neon sign lights up. Some of the ions become trapped and will consequently interact with the Earth's ionosphere (an average of 60-80 miles above the surface), causing the ions to glow. As the plasma comes in contact with the Earth's magnetic field, the ions will be agitated into moving around the Earth. What Causes the Aurora? The Sun emits electrically-charged particles called ions, which correspondingly move away from the Sun in a stream of plasma (ionized gas) known as the solar wind. The Aurora Australis is the southern hemisphere counterpart to the Aurora Borealis. The Aurora Borealis (commonly referred to as the Northern Lights) are the result of interactions between the Sun and Earth's outer atmosphere.
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