When do auroras appear

There, the particles interact with gases in our atmosphere resulting in beautiful displays of light in the sky. Oxygen gives off green and red light. Nitrogen glows blue and purple. The green bands of light in the sky are an aurora australis, an aurora at the south pole. They sure do! Auroras are not just something that happen on Earth.

If a planet has an atmosphere and magnetic field, they probably have auroras. The energy released during these collisions causes a colorful glowing halo around the poles—an aurora. The most active auroras happen when the solar wind is the strongest. The solar wind is usually fairly constant, but solar weather—the heating and cooling of different parts of the sun—can change daily. Solar weather is often measured in sunspot s.

Sunspots are the coldest part of the sun and appear as dark blobs on its white-hot surface. Solar flare s and coronal mass ejection s are associated with sunspots. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections are sudden, extra bursts of energy in the solar wind.

Sunspot activity is tracked over an year cycle. Bright, consistent auroras are most visible during the height of sunspot activity. Some increased activity in the solar wind happens during every equinox. These regular fluctuations are known as magnetic storm s.

Magnetic storms can lead to auroras being seen in the midlatitude s during the time around the spring and autumnal equinox es. Auroras have been visible as far south as the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

Magnetic storms and active auroras can sometimes interfere with communications. They can disrupt radio and radar signals. Intense magnetic storms can even disable communication satellite s. Coloring an Aurora The colors of the aurora vary, depending on altitude and the kind of atoms involved. If ions strike oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere, the interaction produces a red glow.

This is an unusual aurora—the most familiar display, a green-yellow hue, occurs as ions strike oxygen at lower altitudes. Reddish and bluish light that often appears in the lower fringes of auroras is produced by ions striking atoms of nitrogen. Ions striking hydrogen and helium atoms can produce blue and purple auroras, although our eyes can rarely detect this part of the electromagnetic spectrum. To find out more about the mysterious light displays, scientists have launched satellites specially designed to study auroras.

The secret to seeing the Aurora Borealis is patience. If your snowmobile or minibus or snowshoe search is unsuccessful then it is very often the people who brave the cold night rather than those who sneak off to a warm bed who have a tale to tell at breakfast time.

You do not have any shortlisted holidays. Click the star icon on the search or holiday pages to shortlist a holiday. Activities Abroad is the UK's leading family activity holiday company. From Father Christmas, the Northern Lights and dog sledding in winter to white water rafting, canyoning and kayaking in summer we offer a compelling range of holidays to suit active families.

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If you opt into emails, you may unsubscribe at any time. To read our privacy policy click here. We use cookies to help us provide a better service for you. By continuing to use this site you agree to the use of cookies. Click here for more information Got it! View Holidays. If we could answer this question we would be rich beyond the dreams of men! The best we can do is to provide a rough guide based on certain timescales. January to March These are probably the three most popular months for Aurora hunting because they bring long dark nights and plenty of snow to play in during the daylight hours while you wait for darkness to fall.

But the view from space is much less variable than it is from Earth. From the ground, the auroral structures grow in the sky and change form depending on your distance from them. The auroras on Jupiter and Saturn produce emissions in ultraviolet and infrared which are not visible to the naked eye, but specialist cameras are able to capture them.

There may be visible auroras as well, but they wouldn't look anything like those on Earth. Mars also has an aurora, but it is completely different to that of other planets. Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a global magnetic field. The aurora itself is not harmful to humans but the electrically charged particles produced could have some potentially negative effects to infrastructure and technology. The particles produce an electrical current that reaches the ground.

In very extreme circumstances, this could affect electric power lines, oil and gas pipelines, computer networks and iCloud systems. There could also be a risk to aeroplanes flying at very high altitudes.

All cameras and lenses will give different results, so a bit of trial and error is needed to find out what works best for you. This means that settings which work one night may not work the next.

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