Auroras, Meteors, and Other Atmospheric Phenomena

1
Auroras, Meteors, and Other Atmospheric Phenomena

• rainbows, sun dogs, halos, and lunar and solar
  coronas

2
Auroras

• Auroras originate with the sun.
• Titanic explosions on the sun eject charged
  particles into space and some hit our planet.
• The particles cause the air to glow - what we
  call auroras.

3
Rainbows

• Rainbows are caused by rain drops in the air.
• These rain drops break light down into its many
  colors.
• When we see the reflected light, we see suns
  spectrum

4
Sundogs

• Sun dogs work much like rainbows, but the
  spectrum is caused by ice crystals high up.
• Six-sided ice crystals produce the spectrum and
  scatter suns light.

5
Halos and Coronas

• Halos around the sun an moon are nothing more
  than complete sundogs - or moondogs!
• Coronas are caused only by light scattering.

6
Meteors

• Meteors often arrive from space as meteor
  showers.
• Meteors are caused by debris from passing comets.
• The debris falls to Earth as a hot, shining
  streak.

7
Comets

• Frozen remains from the formation of our solar
  system.
• While not normally found in our planets
  atmosphere, comets can crash to earth.
• One probably did so in northern Russia in the
  year 1908.