Tag: aurora Australis

Auroral display

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I’ve always wanted to see the Aurora Borealis and last night and tonight might have been the chance. But two things are against it. I live too far south and its cloudy. The reason why it might have been visible is because there is a large area of sunspots that had come into view around the edge of the Sun. It has strong magnetic North and South currents which increases the chance and strength of Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar flares. These could be directed Earth-wards and spark Aurora in both the North (Aurora Borealis) and South (Aurora Australis).

I’d like to see the nothern lights one day. It’s on my bucket list. More information can be found at Spaceweather.com.

Northern lights

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My digital doodle of the northern lights. A couple of days ago the sun threw off a medium sized Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). A plume of hot plasma which the Sun throws out every few days into space. This time it was a halo CME which was pointing directly at us on Earth.

The Sun releases plasma and radiation which can cause effects like auroras on Earth. Streams of electrons and ionised gas travel down the magnetic lines of force that surround the Earth in a protective layer. They hit out atmosphere and glow different colours depending on what atoms they excite.

Yesterday aurora were seen quite far down the longitude of the Northern hemisphere. It might happen again tonight. The sky glowed. I don’t live far enough north to be able to see it. One day I hope I do.

Most of this is written from memory after reading about the Northern lights. If you want more information please check out relevant websites like spaceweather.com