AURORA

Disha Kashyap XI D
The aurora is a mysterious and unpredictable display
of light in the night sky, named after the Roman
goddess of dawn.

The aurora borealis and aurora australis often

called the northern lights and southern lights are
common occurrences at high northern and southern
latitudes, less frequent at mid-latitudes, and seldom
seen near the equator. While usually observed to have
a milky greenish color, auroras can also appear to be
red, blue, violet, pink, and white.

These colors appear in a variety of continuously

changing shapes, from bands to patches and so forth.
Sometimes the aurora is barely visible and extremely
scattered s it ends up being mistaken for clouds or the
Milky Way; sometimes it is bright enough to identify
and study.

Auroras are a spectacular sign that our planet is

electrically connected to the Sun. These light shows
are a result of the interaction of energy from the Sun

FORMATION OF AURORA
and electrically charged particles trapped in Earths
magnetic field.

The formation of the aurora in the night sky begins

with a solar flare. A solar flare occurs when the
magnetic energy build-up of the sun is suddenly
released in the form of solar winds. These winds carry
charged particles and rays of virtually the entire
electromagnetic spectrum, which interact with the
electrons of atoms present in Earths upper
atmosphere, and manage to penetrate the
magnetosphere. The
magnetosphere of the As a result of this
earth is the region of newly infused energy,
space, where the motion of the electrons of the
the charged particles is molecules of the gases
affected by the planets get excited. As the
magnetic field. The earth gases return to their
has a dipole field, like that normal state, they
of a bar magnet. These release bursts of
charged particles transfer energy in the form of
light, they emit
photons. When a large
number of such
their energy to the oxygen and nitrogen molecules.
 COLOURS OF
Although the sun emits light of all colours, the colours
AURORA
of the aurora is much more restricted.

The colour of the aurora depends on

1) the specific atmospheric gas

2) electrical state of the atmospheric gas
3) energy of the particle which hits the molecule
4) speed of the particle which hits the molecule
5) altitude

High energy electrons cause oxygen to emit green light

(the most common colour of the aurora), while low
energy electrons cause a red light. Nitrogen usually
gives off a blue light. The blending of these colors can
also lead to purples, pinks, and whites.
The oxygen and nitrogen also emit ultraviolet light,
which can be detected by special cameras on satellites.
 SHAPES OF AURORA
Auroras usually appear as long, narrow arcs of light,
often extending east to west from horizon to horizon.
But their shapes vary quite a lot, sometimes they
stretch across the night sky in bands that fold and
swirl. They can spread out in multi-colored rays, like
vertical shafts of light that stretch far up into space.
Sometimes they engulf the sky in a thin cloud or veil.
Completely different auroras can appear in the course
of a single night, and all of the forms can vary in
luminous intensity and shape. The late evening
auroras are usually long diffuse arcs, which slowly
evolve into rayed arcs or bands.
As the night progresses, the bands and arcs become
rippled and folded, eventually breaking into rays and
end up forming a corona. The corona is as rare as it is
spectacular, appearing overhead with all shafts
converging to a center point.
Patches of fluffy clouds of light and flickering auroras
are generally seen later in the night
.
 LOCATION OF
AURORA

Due to the fact that Earth has a dipole magnetic field

of its own, a ring-shaped region is formed around the
planet (at the poles) in which electrically charged
particles (usually electrons and protons) are trapped
because of collisions, which make them lose their
speed. The particles follow spiral trajectories around
the direction of the magnetic field of the planet and
they accumulate at the poles because those are the
strongest points of the magnetic field of the Earth. The
radiation belts surrounding Earth are known as
the Van Allen belts.

Auroras usually occur in these ring-shaped areas about

4,000 km (2,500 miles) in diameter around the
magnetic poles of the Earth. These rings are known as
auroral ovals and these radiation belts are known as
the Van Allen belts.

The northern oval traces a path across central Alaska

and Canada, Greenland, and northern Scandinavia and
Russia.
 In the southern hemisphere, the auroral oval hovers
mostly over the oceans circling Antarctica, but it can
occasionally reach the far edges of New Zealand,

OTHER PLANETS AND THEIR AURORAS

Chile, and Australia. On Earth, the most intense
auroras are caused by solar
storms. An explosion on the sun
hurls a billion-ton cloud of gas
in our direction, and a few days
later, it hits. Charged particles
rain down on the upper
atmosphere, causing the air to
glow red, green and purple.
On Jupiter, however, the sun is
not required. Jupiter is able to
generate its own lights.
The process begins with
Jupiter's spin: The giant planet
turns on it axis once every 10
hours and drags its planetary
magnetic field around with it.
Jupiter's spin produces
10million volts around its poles.
The polar electric fields grab
any charged particles they can
find and slam them into the
atmosphere, which then form
auroras, much larger than seen
on Earth, in fact larger than the
whole planet.
The ultraviolet images were
taken at the time of heightened
solar activity in November 2011
that successively buffeted
Uranus with a gusher of charged
particles from the Sun. Because
Uranus' magnetic field is inclined
59 degrees to its spin axis, the
auroral spots appear far from the
planet's north and south poles.
The color difference occurs
because Earth's auroras are
dominated by excited
nitrogen and oxygen
molecules, and Saturn's
auroras are dominated by
excited hydrogen molecules.
Streams of charged particles
blasted from the sun collide
with Saturn's magnetic field,
creating an aurora on the
planet's south pole. Scientists
combined ultraviolet images
of the auroras, taken by
Hubble, with visible-light
images of the ringed planet.
Unlike on Earth, Saturn's
auroras can be seen only in
ultraviolet light, and
therefore are visible only
from space using instruments
sensitive to ultraviolet
PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH AURORA

Before the use of telegraphs and telephones, rockets

and radio, auroras had no real problems or
consequences. Auroral light shows were unanswered
complexities of nature that were to be enjoyed.
However, when humans started to harness the power
of electromagnetism, developing networks of
electrical power and communications systems, the
effect of auroras on these systems was noticed.

The electrons spiraling down the Earths magnetic

field to produce the aurora are themselves an intense
electric current. The rapidly changing current can
cause unwanted electrical currents to flow through
long communication lines, power lines and pipelines,
producing disruptions in communication, electrical
outages, brownouts, and fuel leaks.

At the same time, the upper atmosphere becomes

rippled due to interference. Radio signals are
refracted differently than expected or even absorbed,
making it extremely difficult to communicate at
certain frequencies. Electrons accelerated to high
energies in the magnetosphere can raise havoc with
satellites, damaging electronics and creating false
commands.