THE NORTHERN & SOUTHERN LIGHTS

FROM MYTHS TO MODERN SCIENCE

EISCAT (Njål Gulbrandsen)

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"NO PENCIL CAN DRAW IT, NO COLOURS CAN
PAINT IT, AND NO WORDS CAN DESCRIBE IT
IN ALL ITS MAGNIFICENCE."
 A VENGEFUL FORCE
In ancient times, most people were afraid of the lights.
•
Children would be brought inside
•
Northern lights were a vengeful force which killed those who mocked it. DO NOT WHISTLE TO IT!!!
•
Many believed it was a message from the creator.
•
An old tale from the Nordic countries said that, "God is angry when the aurora flames".
•
An omen of war, or disasters or plagues
•
 BELIEFS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
The Eskimos in the northernmost parts of Canada believe that the northern
• lights were created by spirits, which, dressed in the mystical light, are having
fun because the Sun is missing.

Rapidly moving aurora were called the dance of death.

•
The Sami people calls it “guovssahas” - the light you can hear
•
 BELIEFS O F INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES
The Mandan Indians (North Dakota) explained the northern
• lights as fires over which the great medicine men and warriors
of northern nations simmered their dead enemies in enormous
pots.

© Pål Brekke, Norwegian SpaceCentre/UNIS

 "The Sky's on fire"

The Roman emperor Tiberius in 34AD was tricked into thinking the port of Ostia
was on fire and he sent troops to deal with it. In fact, he was witnessing a red
aurora.
 THE VIKINGNAME
• It was the Vikings which christened the aurora northern lights “Norðurljós”.
 THE NAME - AURORA
BOREALIS
The scientific name for the phenomena is Aurora Borealis, which is Latin and translates into
•• “the dawn of the north”.

It was the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) who first used the expression. On the
• latitude where Galileo was living, northern lights consist of mainly red colour. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Italian
mathematician, philosopher and astronomer.
Among his discoveries are the four Galiliean
moons around Jupiter.Although he wasn't the
first to see northern lights, he gaveit it's scientific
name.

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 AURORA IN SCIENCE
The first realistic description of auroras is found in the Norwegian
• chronicle the King's Mirror from about 1230 AD.The book is
originally written as a textbook, probably for the young King Magnus
Lagabøte by his father.

Reflected sunlight from below the horizon?, fires at Greenland?

•
 EARLY AURORA SCIENCE
Swedish Suno Arnelius (1681-1740) submitted his thesis in 1708 suggesting that solar rays were
• reflected off ice particles in the atmosphere

Descartes also proposed a similar idea

•
Later spectroscopic observations dismissed this theory
• Observe

Solar rays
 EARLY AURORA SCIENCE
The strong aurora on 6 March 1716 could be observed in large parts of Europe and gave
birth to more modern science.

Sir Edmund Halley published the first detailed description of the aurora in 1716.
• He expressed that at an age of 60 years he had give up on experiencing this amazing phenomenon.
• Argued that the top of the aurora arc did not point towards the North pole, but towards the magnetic pole
•
• "Auroral rays are due to the particles, which are affected by the magnetic field; the
rays are parallel to Earth's
 KRISTIAN BIRKELAND (1867 - 1917)
It was known since 1747 that rapid movements of a compass needle was related to high
aurora activity.
Established a series of magnetic observatories in the Arctic and subsequently determined
• that the aurora was linked to solar activity.

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 KRISTIAN BIRKELAND (1867 - 1917)
The first realistic theory of the aurora: Electrical charged particles travelling with large
• velocities from sunspots. These were captured by the Earths magnetic fields and
channelled down towards the polar regions.
He supported his theory by creating artificial aurora in his laboratory in 1896.
•

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THE SUN - THE AURORA
ENGINE

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 GAS ERUPTION ON THE SUN

Sometimes large prominences can erupt and large amount of gas and magnetic fields are
ejected out in space. The largest eruptions eject several billion tons of particles
corresponding to 100,000 large battleships. Such eruptions are called Coronal Mass
Ejections or CMEs for short. this journey.

If such an eruption is directed towards the Earth the particles will be deflected by our
magnetosphere. The cloud of gas will push and shake the Earths magnetic field and
generate a kind of “storm” which we call geomagnetic storms.
CORONAL MASS EJECTION
Also known as CME
•
CMEs are huge bubbles of gas within magnetic field lines that are ejected from the Sun over the
• course of several hours
Coronal mass ejections are often associated with solar flares and prominences.
•
But they can also occur in the absence of either of these processes.
•
The frequency of CMEs varies with the sunspot cycle.
•
At solar minimum we observe about one CME a week.
•
At solar maximum we observe an average of 2 to 3 CMEs per day
•
A flare is defined as a sudden, rapid, and intense variation in brightness. A solar flare occurs when
• magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released.

The amount of energy released is the equal to millions of 100-megaton hydrogen bombs exploding
• at the same time!
WHAT CAUSES THE NORTHERN
LIGHTS

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 THE STRUCTURES
Most visible aurora comes from precipitating electrons. Both electrons and protons are
charged particles, and they are not free to move in just any direction.
The curtain shapes of aurora results from this restriction on the motion of charged particles.
When an electron spirals along the magnetic field into the atmosphere, it stays on or near
this field line even when it makes a collision.Therefore the aurora looks like rays or curtains.
When a proton spirals into the atmosphere along a field line it is just as restricted in its motion. In a
collision, however, the proton can catch an electron from the atom or molecule that it collides with,
and it is then a neutral hydrogen atom (i.e. a proton and an electron bound together).This hydrogen
atom is free to travel in any direction, independent of the magnetic field.
It may again turn into a proton in a subsequent collision, and be bound to travel along the direction
of the magnetic field.
This process can repeat itself several times before all the energy of the initial proton is spent. The
effect of this meandering path is that the proton aurora is spread out and gives a very diffuse glow
rather than the confined curtains of electron aurora.
Because it is so spread out, proton aurora is usually not bright enough to be visible to the human
eye. Sensitive instruments and cameras, however, can see this aurora.
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 HOW DOES IT OCCUR ?

Solar Wind being captured

Sun emits charged particles Particle form Solar Wind by
Earth’s magnetosphere

The excited electrons emit

energy in form of light Particles drawn up to the
AURORA Earth’s magnetic poles
Bow shock – where velocity of solar wind drops sharply as it approaches the magnetopause Magnetopause – delimits boundary
between solar wind and Earth’s magnetosphere.
Magnetosheath – region between the bow shock and the magnetopause

Outside the bow shock the solar wind wins, Inside the magnetopause the Earth’s field wins,
in between is a messy competition
Some small amount of charged particles can enter magnetopause where field lines and particle trajectories are most nearly parallel
 NORTHERN LIGHTS

The Northern Lights occur as a result of

• charged particles in Earth’s magnetic
field colliding with the gases of the
Earth’s atmosphere.

You can see the northern lights in many

• different colors.
 SOUTHERN LIGHTS

The southern lights are known as Aurora

• Australis.

They can rarely be seen unless you live

• in Antarctica or somewhere in the south.
 OCCURRENCE !

Most auroras occur in a band known as the auroral zone.

It’s a ring-shaped region with a radius of approximately 2500 km
around the Earth's magnetic pole.
Most of the light is produced between 90 and 150 km above the ground,
while extending at times to more than 1000km.
 APPEARANCE !
The aurora frequently appears as "curtains" that extend approximately in the east-west
direction.
Red: At the highest altitudes, lower sensitivity of eyes at this wavelength. The low amount
ofoxygen atoms is responsible for the faint appearance.
Green: At lower altitudes. Fairly high concentration of atomic oxygen and higher eye
sensitivity in greenmake green auroras the most common.
Yellow and pink are a mix of red and green or blue. Blue: At yet lower altitudes.
Lowest atomicoxygen. Most visible.
 WHY COLOURFULL?

High-speed discharge electrons collide with atoms and molecules in

the upper atmosphere
Different kinds of atoms and molecules produce different colours
of lights
Emissions between 100 and 300 km altitude
DANCING COLOURS

>500km:
Hydrogen and Helium atoms take over

200-500km:
Oxygen atoms – green / brownish-red brightest single line emission of
the aurora

100-200km:
Nitrogen molecules – blue / red blue/purple border
green line emission (oxygen) is quenched at this altitude

The color of light emitted depends on the wavelength of a photon: visible light ~400-700
nanometers (blue-red)
Most of the northern lights we see form in electrons and move into the
ionosphere. The mechanism by which their kinetic energy is converted to
visible light is called the quantum leap. To explain this mechanism, imagine
a hydrogen atom consisting of a single positive proton nucleus around which
spins a single electron at a set distances. Normally, the electron is in an orbit
as close to the proton as possible. In a state like this, the hydrogen atom a
minimum energy. There are other possible orbits further away from the
nucleus in which the electron can spin. When a free electron collides with a
hydrogen electron at a high speed, it releases energy. Because of this, the
spinning electron moves into another, higher energy orbit further out from
the nucleus. It now contains more potential energy, but is unstable and
unable to keep this energy. It returns to its original orbit, releasing the extra
energy as a photon of light. Billions of these quantum leaps that keep
occurring create the Northern lights.
 Same effects as in a neon sign
•

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Complex formations out of the shown elements:
• Curl
• Curtain

• Omega band Corona

• Pulsating aurora
• Combinations are also possible

Image source: fotocommunity.de

Sound waves are pressure waves which travel
about 340 metres per second in air at ground
level.
At altitudes between 80 and 500 kilometres,
where the aurora occurs, we have a near-
vacuum, so it is not possible for sound
waves to propagate.
Probably what people hear is something
generated by the geomagnetic storm.
 NASA NASA NASA

Is it only the Earths that is experiencing polar lights? No, in fact it can be observed on many other planets such as Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. These are all gaseous planets with an atmosphere and magnetic fields. The polar lights on
these planets are caused by the same mechanism.

Large eruptions on the Sun are causing disturbances in their magnetic fields and pumps particles into their atmosphere,
which then glow as giant neon tubes. When aurora are observed by satellites, we can see that the polar lights on the
planets are very similar to that on the Earth.
 MODERN SCIENCE
INFRASTRUCTURE

Kiruna Sweden
Poker Flat,Alaska
OBSERVING SPACE
 ICI-3 from Ny Ålesund
The research from this and the previous ICI flights will enable scientists to understand how space weather affects all
types of radio communications.

ARS/Jøran Moen
KJELL HENRIKSEN
OBSERVATORY
EISCAT SVALBARD
 A AURORA SEEN FROM SPACE

Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aurora_Borealis.jpg

Southern Lights- (Aurora Australis),
A cloud of magnetized gas from the Sun swept past Earth and rocked our planet's magnetic field. Northern sky watchers were

delighted as red and green lights rippled across the sky. It was the
aurora borealis -- breaking out for the third time
this month.
 HUMAN EYES VS CAMERAS
Human eyes has nmeny rod cells that gives good night vission but no colors.We have fewer of the cone cells that provide color vision. That is why we
see less colors in dark condition - and why the northern lights often looks more whitish than bright green.

Cameras also have the advantage of being able to accumulate light for a long time (long exposures) in addition to being more sensitive to colors.

Some people can see more colors in dark konditions that others - but during very strong northern lights activity most people can se many coloers -
like pruple, blue and red.

Seen with a human eye Seen with a camera

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 W H E R E C A N A U R O R A !S B E S E E N

Northern Canada, Alaska and along the northern coast of Siberia, Northern
Norway,etc.
Antarctica and the surrounding ocean, can also be glimpsed from Tasmania and
southern New Zealand.
Both Jupiter and Saturn have magnetic fields much stronger than Earth's ; auroras
have beenobserved on both, most clearly.
Uranus and Neptune have also been observed to have auroras.
September and March are the most frequent months for auroras and January
and July the least likely. Most of the solar activity comes from regions of the
sun outside the solar equatorial band +/- 10 degrees to either side of the solar
equator. The Earth in it’s orbit is inside this equatorial band during January
and July, and when it is at it’s maximum in September and March, the Earth
is in the zone of solar activity
 SPACE
WEATHER

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Aurora forecast: Monitoring the Sun

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AURORA FORECASTER IN
NORWAY/
 THE UNIS AURORA FORECASTER
The 37th Annual European Meeting on Atmospheric by Optical Methods, Valladolid, Spain, 23 - 27
August 2010.
Q UESTIONS AND D ISCUSSION