2. Click to edit Master title style
2
Table of Content
• What is Aurora Borealis?
• Creation of Aurora
• Aurora Borealis Observation History
• Important Aurora Borealis Regions
• Aurora on Other Planets
4. Click to edit Master title style
4
What is Aurora Borealis?
• Aurora Borealis is one of the fascinating visual
spectacles one can experience on our planet. They are
waves of colors dancing amidst surreal arctic
landscapes.
• The aurora borealis is also known as the northern
lights—a vibrant exhibition of the Earth’s magnetic
field mingling with charged particles from the Sun.
• Aurora borealis is a natural light extravaganza in the
Earth’s atmosphere, mostly occurring in high-altitude
regions in the Arctic.
5. Click to edit Master title style
5
• In the Antarctic area, it is called aurora australis.
Auroras create surreal and dynamic patterns of
dazzling lights that appear as spirals, curtains, flickers,
or rays that consume the whole sky.
• The term “aurora” is coined from the name of the
Roman goddess of Dawn, Aurora. In ancient times,
Greek poets used this term metaphorically to mention
dawn or patterns of colour across the dark sky.
“Borealis” was derived from the Greek god name
“Boreas”.
7. Click to edit Master title style
7
• Every second, highly energetic particles from the Sun
crash into the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The Earth’s
magnetic field regulates these powerful rays of
particles. Particles are redirected towards the poles
(Arctic and Antarctic). The dynamic process
transforms into a vibrant display of colours and light.
• The Sun emits charged particles from its upper or
corona region at every moment. It creates a
phenomenon called solar wind.
8. Click to edit Master title style
8
When such charged particles enter the upper
atmosphere or ionosphere, auroras emerge. In the
northern pole, it is called aurora borealis (northern
lights), while in the southern pole, it is called aurora
australis (southern lights).
• Each type of molecule, compound, or atom has its
own apparent spectrum of colours. For example,
carbon dioxide radiates and absorbs its own distinctive
class of colours. Those are as unique as the distinctive
nature of each human DNA. Most of the time, red
(nitrogen molecule) and green (oxygen molecule) are
seen as the predominant colours during aurora
borealis.
9. Click to edit Master title style
9
• In 1619, Astronomer Galileo Galilei coined the term
“aurora borealis”. However, the earliest known record
of aurora borealis is on a cave painting in France
(thirty thousand years old).
• The oldest genuine auroral citing was written in a
Chinese record called “Fu-Pao”. There is a very
detailed description of the nature and movement of
aurora lights. The author used phrases like
‘strong lightning travelling around the star Su’. In
1570 A.D., a simple drawing of the aurora illustrated
burning candles hovering above the clouds.
10. Click to edit Master title style
1
0
• During the 1790s, Henry Cavendish made significant
observations of the aurora phenomenon. He applied
triangulation to calculate that the aurora light
produced around 100-130 km in height.
• In 1902, Physicist Kristian Birkeland deduced that the
auroral light was produced by currents propagating
through the gases of the higher atmosphere. This
principle was later used to create present-day neon
lights.
• After the invention of cameras, we are able to capture
images of aurora lights. It is one of the most sought
after natural phenomena on the planet
11. Click to edit Master title style
1
1
• Aurora borealis is frequently visible in Northern
Scandinavia in a band that stretches between 66°N and
69°N, which we call the Aurora Zone. The band can
expand when geomagnetic activity is high.
• The aurora borealis is visible from being close to the
centre of the Arctic Circle, such as Alaska, Canada,
Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and
Russia. A geomagnetic storm can cause the auroral
ovals (north and south) to expand, bringing the aurora
to lower latitudes.
12. Click to edit Master title style
1
2
• We know that auroral lights are created when
magnetic fields interact with highly charged particles.
Like the Earth, every other planet in the solar system
has a magnetic field. So there is always the possibility
of aurora lights in planets with strong magnetic fields.
• Jupiter and Saturn have massive magnetic fields that
are much stronger than the Earth’s.
• They both have wide radiation belts that allow them to
ionize huge quantities of solar winds. As they are
predominantly rotating gas balls, the frequency of
aurora lights is far greater than one can imagine from
the Earth.
14. Click to edit Master title style
1
4
• The Hubble Space Telescope, the Cassini and Galileo
satellites have observed such optical phenomena on
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
• Like the Earth’s aurora activities, Saturn also seems to
produce such lights by ionising solar winds. On the
other hand, there are other complex activities that
produce auroral lights. One of the important auroral
ovals of Jupiter is directly connected with plasma
generated by Moon Lo Volcano. This massive amount
of plasma travels into the magnetosphere, causing
gigantic auroral lights.
• Venus and Mars have also witnessed below average
aurora lights.
15. Click to edit Master title style
1
5
• The magnetic field on Venus is almost zero. Therefore,
the produced spectrum colours are not as vibrant as a
perfect aurora light. Normally they are bright and
diffused. In some conditions, it might spread across
the whole horizon of the planet. Here, aurora occurs
when solar wind electrons interact with the nightside
atmosphere.
• On August 14, 2014, the SPICAM instrument (Mars
Express) discovered an aurora on Mars. It was found
at Terra Cimmeria.
• In July 2015, the first-ever interstellar aurora was
detected. It was hovering around the brown dwarf
planet LSR J1835+3259. The red aurora was a million
times brighter than aurora borealis on the Earth. As per
the current understanding, it was a byproduct of
charged particles mingling with hydrogen gas in the
atmosphere.
