Two days ago there was a giant solar flare, the biggest seen in many years. National Geographic explains that solar flares are "The most powerful explosions in the solar system."
"Solar flares occur when magnetic field lines on the sun cross, cancel each other out, then reconnect.These "explosive reconnections" release huge amounts energy as heat—in this case, a short blast measuring roughly 35 million degrees Fahrenheit (19 million degrees Celsius), according to physicist Dean Pesnell, project scientist for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO."
 |
Pictured in ultraviolet, the largest solar flare in four years (center) explodes on Monday. |
Along with this, the magnetic instability of the flare caused a blast of particles to be sent out towards earth. These particles are predicted to reach earth's atmosphere tonight. Now, while this all sounds really sci-fi and as if our planet might be taken over, don't worry. This is not an asteroid and this is not some sort of attack. Nope, at the most these particles will cause really pretty lights, or auroras. Neat eh?
Aurora borelais is caused "by the interaction of charged particles from the sun with the Earth's magnetic field. That excites oxygen and nitrogen in the Earth's upper atmosphere and causes them to light up."
Read more: CBC - solar flare and aurora borealis
Because it is an interaction that involves Earth's magnetic field, this is why you mostly see the northern lights, well, up north in the arctic, since that's where it is strongest. I have been lucky enough to see the northern lights once in my life when I was a child, and so it is a faint memory but one that has always captivated me and hopefully one day I'll see them again! Who knows, will tonight be the night? Probably not in Montreal since its a city and so there is all that city-light blocking out natural lights. But perhaps for those of you not in the city, or those of you ambitious and optimistic enough to go in search for it!
Here is a really cool website provided by the Canadian Space Agency, called AuroraMax Live, which is a live webcam that captures real-time aurora borealis in Yellowknife (it only shows after dusk though, not all day, obviously). I'll be trying it out tonight for the first time, so forgive me if it is not 'all that' since I am just discovering it for myself as well (but I have high hopes).
Click here for an article about this new site.
It's nice to understand how the beauties of our world work, and neat to see how something as distant as the sun may influence it in such unexpected ways. I think that through truly taking time to stop and enjoy nature - even if it is through a live webcam, as sad as that may be ( I wish I could actually be up north cuddled up in a parka watching it!) - we can be reminded of what it is that we want to help preser and just how important things like conservation, sustainability and just living more 'green' is.
No comments:
Post a Comment