printing block
Aurora is a brilliant and beautiful glow in the sky near the north and south poles of the earth at night because charged particles (solar wind) from the sun enter the earth's magnetic field. It is called the Southern Lights in Antarctica and the Northern Lights in the Arctic.
catalogue
The form of aurora
Aurora production
Early point of view
Scientific research viewpoint
Theory of the past
Modern theory
Aurora production principle
Aurora is the hard evidence that energy enters the geomagnetic field.
The classification of aurora can be divided into the following categories according to its morphology.
According to the observed electromagnetic wave band is divided into
According to the types of excited particles can be divided into
According to the occurrence area, it can be divided into
Aurora on Jupiter
On other planets
Saturn and Jupiter may have very similar processes of aurora formation.
Legend of China 1
Legend 2
Aurora in Pittsburgh
Foreign legends
The beauty of aurora
point of observation
additional information
Aurora poetry
Aurora Music Group member of Aurora Music Group
Aurora's Musical Course
Aurora loophole
Aurora network TV
Aurora remote security assessment system: the form of aurora
Aurora production
Early point of view
Scientific research viewpoint
Theory of the past
Modern theory
Aurora production principle
Aurora is the hard evidence that energy enters the geomagnetic field.
The classification of aurora can be divided into the following categories according to its morphology.
According to the observed electromagnetic wave band is divided into
According to the types of excited particles can be divided into
According to the occurrence area, it can be divided into
Aurora on Jupiter
On other planets
Saturn and Jupiter may have very similar processes of aurora formation.
Legend of China 1
Legend 2
Aurora in Pittsburgh
Supplementary information about the observation place of the beauty of aurora in foreign legends, aurora poetry and aurora music combination
The music history of Aurora, a member of Aurora Music Group, Aurora loophole Aurora network TV Aurora remote safety evaluation system went online to edit the shape of this aurora.
aurora
Aurora is diverse, colorful, different in shape and incomparable in beauty, and nothing in nature can match it. It is difficult for any mark to draw that unpredictable dazzling light in the cold polar air. Aurora sometimes appears for a short time, just like the fireworks of the festival flashed in the air and disappeared without a trace; Sometimes it can shine in the sky for hours; Sometimes like a ribbon, sometimes like a flame, sometimes like a colorful giant screen; Some colors are changeable and endless; Some are just silvery white, like cotton wool and white clouds, solidified; Some of them are unusually bright, covering up the brilliance of the stars and the moon; Some are very light, like a bunch of moss; Some structures are simple, like a curved arc, showing a light green and reddish tone; Some are like colored silks or ribbons thrown into the sky, flying up and down; Some are as soft as scarves, fluttering in the wind, showing purple and crimson colors; Sometimes the aurora appears on the horizon, just like the morning light; Sometimes it is as bright as camellia and red; Sometimes the aurora gathers together like a curtain; Sometimes it shoots many beams, just like a proud peacock, flying with butterfly wings.
Edit this generation of aurora.
produce
Aurora (or aurora or northern lights) appears over the high magnetic latitudes of the earth, which is a colorful luminous phenomenon. Aurora is produced by the high-energy charged particle flow (solar wind) from the earth's magnetosphere or the sun exciting (or ionizing) molecules or atoms in the upper atmosphere. Aurora not only appears on the earth, but also on other planets with magnetic fields in the solar system.
Early point of view
For centuries, this has been a mystery of astronomical phenomena that people have speculated and explored. Once upon a time, Eskimos believed that ghosts and gods led the souls of the dead to the aurora.
The torch of heaven. /kloc-in the 0/3rd century, people thought it was the light reflected by the Greenland ice sheet. It was not until the17th century that people called it the Northern Lights-Arctic Dawn (the same light seen in the South Pole is called the Southern Lights). With the progress of science and technology, the mystery of aurora is more and more known to us. It turns out that this beautiful scenery is the work of cooperation between the sun and the atmosphere. Among the various forms of energy created by the sun, such as light and heat, one kind of energy is called "solar wind". The solar wind is charged particles ejected by the sun, and it is a powerful charged subatomic particle stream, which can cover the earth, so it belongs to the plasma state. The solar wind flows around the earth over the earth and hits the earth's magnetic field at a speed of about 400 kilometers per second. The earth's magnetic field is shaped like a funnel, with its tip facing the north and south poles of the earth, so charged particles emitted by the sun settle along the "funnel" of the earth's magnetic field and enter the polar regions of the earth. The upper atmosphere of the poles, bombarded by the solar wind, will glow and form aurora. What is formed in the Antarctic region is called Antarctic light. What is formed in the North Pole is called the Northern Lights.
Scientific research viewpoint
1890, Norwegian physicist birkeland thought that the sun, which is 0/500,000 kilometers away from the earth/kloc-0, almost continuously radiates material points to the earth. However, from 50000 km to 65000 km away, there is a magnetic field covering the earth. When the sun's particles are directly blocked by this magnetic field, it will spread around the earth, looking for the drilled gap. As a result, about 65,438+0% of the particles got into the atmosphere near the north magnetic pole. Each solar particle contains electricity equal to 1000 volts. They encounter atoms and molecules mainly composed of oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere 100 km away. When atoms absorb part of the energy contained in solar particles, they will immediately release this energy, thus producing extremely intense light. Oxygen emits green and red light, while nitrogen emits purple, blue and some crimson light. These colorful colors make up a beautiful and spectacular aurora scene. At present, many scientists are conducting in-depth research on aurora. The aurora seen by people is mainly caused by electrons in the charged particle flow. Moreover, the color and intensity of aurora also depend on the energy and quantity of settling particles. Using an image metaphor, it can be said that aurora activity is like a live TV picture of magnetosphere activity. Sedimentation particles are the electron beam of TV, the earth's atmosphere is the TV screen, and the earth's magnetic field is the electron beam guiding magnetic field. Scientists from Aurora
A great deal of information about the magnetosphere and the electromagnetic activities in the Sun-Earth space was obtained from this nature TV. For example, through polarographic analysis, we can know the source, particle type, energy, the structure of the earth's magnetic tail, the interaction between the earth's magnetic field and the planetary magnetic field, and the way and degree of the influence of solar disturbance on the earth. Aurora is not only beautiful, but also the energy cast in the earth's atmosphere can be compared with the total capacity generated by power plants all over the world. This energy often confuses radio and radar signals. The strong current generated by aurora can also gather on long-distance telephone lines or affect the propagation of microwaves, so that some or all of the current in the circuit is "lost", and even the transmission lines are seriously disturbed, thus temporarily losing power supply in some areas. How to use the energy generated by aurora to benefit mankind is an important mission of today's scientific community.
Theory of the past
There used to be some theories to explain this phenomenon, but now they are out of date. 1. Benjamin Franklin's theory: The magical Northern Lights are caused by thick charged particles in the polar regions, strong snow and other moisture. 2. The electrons of aurora come from the light beam emitted by the sun. This was put forward by Christian Berklein in 1900. She uses a vacuum chamber and a magnetized earth model in the laboratory to show how electrons are guided to the polar regions. The problems of this model include the lack of aurora in polar regions, the scattering of these beams by negative charges themselves, and the lack of any observation evidence in space in the near future. 3. Broken barrel theory: Aurora is an overflow radiation belt, which was first put forward by james van allen and his colleagues in about 1962. They pointed out that the huge energy gained in the radiation area will soon be exhausted in the spread of aurora. Soon after, it was obvious that all the positively charged ions trapped in the radiation belt were high energy, while almost all the electrons in the aurora were low energy. 4. Aurora is produced by the particles in the solar wind being guided to the top of the atmosphere by the earth's field line, which is suitable for the cusp of aurora, but outside the middle point, the solar wind has no direct effect. On the other hand, the energy of solar wind mainly stays in positively charged ions, and the electron is only 0.5eV, but it will rise to 50- 100eV at the cusp, which is still far lower than the energy of aurora.
Modern theory
According to the new data sent back by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration "The Mismission" (2007/12), scientists found that charged particles released by the sun flew to the earth like airflow, and when they hit the magnetic field over the North Pole, they formed several distorted magnetic fields. The energy of charged particles is released in an instant in the form of bright and dazzling northern lights, while the aurora of the earth is mainly red and green because. The research was conducted by Angie Polos of UCLA, and the results were presented at the academic meeting of American Geophysical Union on February 9, 2007. In February 2007, five satellite groups of the Smithsonian mission were successfully launched. In March, the Northern Lights appeared over Alaska and Canada for two hours. At the same time, the satellite also detected the contact between charged particles and the North Pole magnetic field. To Angelopoulos' surprise, the magnetic storm formed by the contact of charged particles with the magnetic field swept the air at a speed of 650 kilometers per minute, and its power was equivalent to an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale. Scientists have long suspected that the energy of the Northern Lights comes from the twisted magnetic field generated by the contact between charged particles and the Arctic magnetic field, but this theory was not confirmed until May 20 10, when the satellite group of the Semis mission first measured the structure of the twisted magnetic field from more than 60,000 kilometers above the earth. Aurora is a large-scale discharge process around the earth. Charged particles from the sun arrive near the earth, and the earth's magnetic field forces some of them to concentrate along the magnetic field lines to the North and South poles. When they enter the polar upper atmosphere, they collide and excite with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, producing light and forming aurora. The aurora observed in the northern hemisphere is called the Northern Lights, and the aurora observed in the southern hemisphere is called the Southern Lights. It often appears in two banded areas near 67 degrees north and south latitude. Fairbanks, Alaska has more than 200 days of aurora in a year, so it is called the "Northern Lights Capital".
Aurora production principle
Aurora is a colorful luminous phenomenon, which often appears in the atmosphere above latitude near the geomagnetic pole. Generally, they are in the form of belts, arcs, curtains and radiations, and these shapes are sometimes stable and sometimes continuously changing. Aurora is produced by the flow of charged high-energy particles (up to 1 million electron volts) in the solar active region, which excites or ionizes molecules or atoms in the upper atmosphere. Due to the geomagnetic field, these high-energy particles turn to the polar regions, so aurora is very common in high magnetic latitudes. Aurora often appears in the range of about 25-30 from the magnetic pole, which is called the aurora area. The area between 45 degrees and 60 degrees of geomagnetic latitude is called aurora.
Weak auroral region, the region with geomagnetic latitude below 45 is called micro auroral region. The height of the lower boundary of the aurora is less than 100 km from the ground, and the height of the maximum luminous place is about 1 10 km from the ground. The normal maximum boundary is about 300 kilometers from the ground, and in extreme cases it can reach more than 1000 kilometers. According to the research on the distribution of aurora in recent years, the shape of aurora is not a ring with the geomagnetic pole as the center, but an ellipse. The spectral range of the aurora is about 3 100-6700 angstroms, and the most important spectral line is the oxygen atom green line of 5577 angstroms, which is called the aurora green line. As early as more than 2,000 years ago, China began to observe the aurora, which has a rich aurora record.
Aurora is the hard evidence that energy enters the geomagnetic field.
The magnetic lines of the earth's magnetosphere bring the energy of the solar wind into the earth's interior, and then promote the formation of the geomagnetic field. In this closed loop of magnetospheric magnetic field lines, there are not only conductors inside the earth, but also the ionosphere of the atmosphere, which is a weak conductor. When the solar wind is strong, the magnetic flux energy meets the magnetic reactance inside the earth, and a lot of energy cannot be consumed, so the aurora is formed in the ionosphere. On the earth, aurora is a kind of color luminous phenomenon over the magnetic pole area. Generally, it is belt-shaped, arc-shaped, curtain-shaped or radial. These shapes are sometimes stable and sometimes constantly changing. They have colorful brilliance, like dancing ribbons, and like a million. Aurora often appears in the range of about 25 ~ 30 from the magnetic pole, which is called aurora belt or aurora ellipse belt. Previously, it was generally believed that the aurora was charged particles carried by the solar wind, which settled along the "funnel" of the geomagnetic field and entered the polar region of the earth. The upper atmosphere of the poles, bombarded by the solar wind, will glow and form aurora. This explanation makes people feel quite reasonable at first, but careful analysis is an explanation that can't be established at all. There are only a few charged particles in the solar wind per cubic centimeter, so even if they are all luminous, you can't see them. What's more, let them hit gas particles, and the probability of being hit is even smaller. Let's talk about the settlement of charged particles first! If anyone can make charged particles settle like dust, I'll take a bottle to charge them, hehe. At that time, Stormer wanted to calculate the charged particles of aurora, but he didn't want it to run to the radiation area. Even if the above assumptions are true, according to the theory that charged particles collide with gas particles to form aurora, the aurora should be a pole, not a flat ring. Moreover, the flat ring is a region with strong magnetic field; The flat ring-aurora elliptic belt is not in the extreme tip area, so the solar wind can't reach it. There is also the dance of the northern and southern aurora on a yoke, which is also an unexplained phenomenon in the theory that charged particles collide with gas particles to form aurora. Northern lights over Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland
[1] The average speed of the solar wind is 400 kilometers per second, while the changing speed of the electromagnetic field is close to 300,000 kilometers per second. If you see the aurora of the North and South Poles dancing in the mirror image at the same time, it is a kind of visual enjoyment, whether it is the aurora of the earth, Saturn or Jupiter. The ever-changing aurora shape and color changes are beyond the speed of the solar wind. The change of ideas can sometimes make people suddenly enlightened. If we use the explanation that the magnetic field lines carry energy to form auroras in the ionosphere, we can look at the changes of the earth's magnetosphere structure. We will find that many difficult problems can be solved. For example, many controversies such as magnetic reconnection in space science and magnetic substorms can be straightened out for many years.
Edit the classification of this aurora.
Aurora can be divided into forms.
Uniform light arc, polar beam, auroral light arc, auroral corona with polar light curtain
According to the observed electromagnetic wave band is divided into
Optical aurora radio aurora
According to the types of excited particles can be divided into
Electron aurora proton aurora
According to the occurrence area, it can be divided into
Aurora polar cap aurora mid-latitude aurora red arc
Edit the aurora on Jupiter.
Recently, the Southern European Observatory released the photos of the aurora on Jupiter taken in 2000 1 1 month, and the smoke over Jupiter's poles, which was taken by Jupiter.
This is the first time that scientists have clearly photographed Jupiter's poles. Jupiter is about 6. 1 100 million kilometers from the earth. In the past, scientists used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to take photos of Jupiter's aurora. However, using the infrared telescope of the European Southern Observatory, scientists can observe Jupiter's aurora more clearly. Scientists pointed out that the aurora is around Jupiter's magnetic axis, and these smog are around Jupiter's rotating axis, below the polar halo; The smoke is influenced by the zonal wind on Jupiter, which moves at the same latitude. Scientists believe that Jupiter's rapid rotation every ten hours will also affect the movement of smoke over the poles.
Edit this paragraph on other planets.
Both Jupiter and Saturn have stronger magnetic fields than the earth (Jupiter's magnetic field intensity at the equator is 4.3 gauss, while the earth has only 0.3 gauss), and both have strong radiation belts. The Hubble Space Telescope also clearly saw the aurora of these two planets [1]. The aurora on this giant gas planet looks like the Earth and is also powered by the solar wind. In addition, Jupiter's satellites, especially Eo, are the energy source of Jupiter's aurora. These currents are generated along the field lines (field collimated currents), which are generated by the generator mechanism caused by the relative motion of satellites around the planet. Eo with volcanic activity and ionosphere is a powerful source of charged particles, and the radio wave radiation emitted by its current has been studied since 1955. Aurora was also observed on Europa, Europa and Ganymede with the Hubble Space Telescope. Aurora is produced when plasma in Jupiter's magnetosphere hits their thin atmosphere. Aurora was also observed on Venus and Mars. Because Venus has no internal magnetic field (the planet itself), the auroras of Venus show different shapes and intensities, which look like bright but diffuse patches, sometimes distributed on the whole planet's disk. The auroras of Venus originate from the impact of particles from the solar wind and fall into the atmosphere on the night side. On August 14, 2004, the instrument SPICAM on the Mars Express detected the aurora of Mars. This aurora is located in Meria, Elasi, east longitude 177 and south latitude 52. The radiation area is about 30 kilometers wide and 8 kilometers high. By analyzing the abnormal data of crustal magnetic field in the past, including Mars Global Explorer, scientists found that the radiation area is the region with the strongest local magnetic field. This correlation shows that electrons move through the magnetic field lines of the Martian crust and the excited atmosphere.
Edit this paragraph. Saturn and Jupiter may have very similar processes of aurora formation.
A new study of Saturn's auroral emission has found a second-order auroral ellipse, whose brightness is the main auroral ellipse.