A camera captured the vast, diffuse glow produced after the solar wind dropped to a whisper On Christmas night in 2022, a massive aurora lit up the sky for thousands of kilometres around the North Pole. The light show gave scientists a unique glimpse of the elusive ‘polar rain aurora’, a rare shimmering phenomenon that forms when energetic electrons from the Sun cascade onto Earth’s polar regions. Auroras form when charged particles flowing from the Sun hit and interact with Earth’s magnetic field. Their energy is usually transformed into light shows of dancing green curtains, towering red pillars, or other spectacles such as those that dazzled skywatchers around the world in May. Polar rain auroras are a special type that form when electrons travelling directly from the Sun's co...
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Solar storm hits Earth, producing colorful light shows across Northern Hemisphere The biggest geomagnetic storm in two decades, sparked by solar flares, caused the aurora borealis to appear around stretches of the northern hemisphere where they rarely reach. An unusually strong solar storm hitting Earth produced stunning displays of color in the skies across the Northern Hemisphere early Saturday, with no immediate reports of disruptions to power and communications. The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, glow on the horizon at St. Mary’s Lighthouse in Whitley Bay on the North East coast, England, Friday, May 10, 2024. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP) The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare severe geomagnetic storm warning when a solar ...
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