An Aurora: A Magnificent Art in the Sky

There are many things to do with the night sky, people tend to look at the night sky for stargazing or planet hunting or when there is a scheduled meteor shower, solar or lunar eclipses. But there are also variant things that can be seen in the sky like stray comets and auroras. This phenomenon can occur in the sky seemingly unpredictable yet it is most astonishing to see and leave us in awe.

Auroras occur as an after earth-directed light from the sun, you can assure to see some of them if you took your time to view it. It may not be a hundredth percent but it takes no dime to take a moment to look up to the night sky.

Solar winds can reach Earth’s atmosphere in a variety of ways. Solar flare is the most cause of an endless flow of solar wind. A solar wind can collide with the high energy ions in the atmosphere causing a rapid movement and then emit lights afterwards. Because of the currents of the charged particles that travels along a magnetic field on both poles, an aurora is created: the Aurora Borealis (northern lights) and an Aurora Australis (southern lights).

The solar cycle, which run from a higher activity to a lower activity is in an approximate of 11 year span. An increase in Aurora formation has been taken in the years 1980, 1990, 2001 and 2012 due to a solar maximum. Months of March and April in the spring and September and October of Autumn tend to have more Auroras too than other times of the year based on a yearly basis of sighting but is not explained scientifically up to date.

The sighting of an aurora varies from your position to the Earth. Your chances are better near the auroral oval and less in the southern oval. But aurora visibility is very clear in the northern sky.  Summer is not a good time to go to the auroral oval to see the lights because of a long daylight that limit the after earth lighting from the sun. Fortunately, a large part of it can be seen occasionally in southern locations of Arizona and Italy. 

The greenish glow along the northern horizon was captured from Wisconsin on April 23, 2012. Credit: Kelly Whitt

Pictures of the northern lights is often drop dead gorgeous due to its hue density and variety of color, with an electric blue whorls and silk like stash of red, but most of the time you would see a faint greenish bluish glow on the upper horizon.  To maximize the spectacle of the phenomenon, go to a secluded place where there is less light pollution and buildings to see a clear dark sky.

Source:

http://www.astronomytoday.com/astronomy/aurora.html

Prepared by:

Darren Bautista