Thursday 2 October 2014

Aurora-- magical lights

An aurora is a natural light display in the sky (from the Latin word aurora, "sunrise" or the Roman goddess of dawn), especially in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions. Most auroras occur in a band known as the auroral zone,which is typically 3° to 6° wide in latitude.

Aurora can be seen in BOREALIS

How Auroras happens?

Auroras are associated with the solar wind, a flow of ions continuously flowing outward from the Sun. The Earth's magnetic field traps these particles, many of which travel toward the poles where they are accelerated toward Earth. Collisions between these ions and atmospheric atoms and molecules cause energy releases in the form of auroras appearing in large circles around the poles.

Color of aurora is decided by how much energy is absorbed by oxygen or nitrogen atoms

oxygen emissions
green or orange-red, depending on the amount of energy absorbed.

nitrogen emissions
blue or red; blue if the atom regains an electron after it has been ionized, red if returning to ground state from an excited state.

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