AURORAS - Electricity

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AURORAS - Electricity Magnetism in Nature

• Connie Walker
• NOAO

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A Brief History of Auroras
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A Brief History of Auroras

• Norwegian chronicle the King's Mirror (1230 AD)
• The aurora in the King's Mirror was said to be a
  natural phenomenon and was nicknamed Nordurljos,
  or northern lights.
• The scientific name, Aurora Borealis, is Latin
  and translates into the red dawn of the north.
  The Italian scientist, Galileo Galilei
  (1564-1642), first used the expression. Where
  Galileo lived, northern lights consist of mainly
  red color.

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The Origin of Aurora
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The Origin of Aurora
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The Origin of Aurora
. .
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The Origin of Aurora
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The Origin of Aurora
In 1989, solar storms disrupted satellite
transmission power grids. Eastern Canada lost
power for 9 hours.
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Things Around the Earth We Cannot See

• Air (gases nitrogen, oxygen, etc)
• Magnetic Field
• Played with iron filings
• Bar magnet at Earths center
• Field lines we draw to represent it
• Poles where field strongest? Weakest?
• A Plasma
• Made up of charged particles (mostly electrons)
• They spiral along the magnetic field lines

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Plasma or energetic electrically charged
particles (mostly electrons) accelerate along the
magnetic field lines into the upper atmosphere,
where they collide with gas atoms, causing the
atoms to give off light.
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Cool Website

• Solar wind, plasma, magneto-tail, aurora
• http//www.northern-lights.no/english/what/cause.
  shtml

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Cool Websites

• Two good examples of an aurora (movies)
• http//www.weatherpaparazzi.com/video/videodetail
  .asp?id105
• http//www.northern-lights.no/resources/gregcolor
  s.wmv
• Auroral ovals around the poles today
• http//www.northern-lights.no/english/measurement
  s/poes.shtml

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http//www.northern-lights.no/english/what/planets
.shtml
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Story

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http//ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/auroras/story.html
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More Cool Websites

• Mythology of Auroras
• http//www.northern-lights.no/english/mythology/i
  ndex.shtml

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• http//www.wikipedia.org
• http//www.encarta.com
• http//www.nasa.gov
• http//www.space.com
• http//www.weatherpaparazzi.com/
• http//ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/auroras/story
• http//www.northern-lights.no/
• http//www.spaceweather.com/

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The Following Imagesof Aurora Australis are
Provided With Many Thanks toKarina Leppik and
Chris Martin (her better half)
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