Recently, auroras of vivid green and purple danced across the night sky in Sweden.
An all-sky camera was used in Kiruna (Sweden) to capture the night-time light show. It is part of ESA's Space Weather Service Network.
The camera is pointed straight up and has a fish-eye lens that allows it to capture the sky from horizons to horizons. On October 12, the magnetic field of our planet was affected by a coronal mass-ejection (CME). The Aurora Borealis, also known under the name the Northern Lights, became visible.
On October 9, 2021, a solar storm caused a powerful explosion of plasma and fast-moving energy into space. A few days later, auroras could be seen all over the globe in the northern part of the hemisphere.
Hannah Laurens, a European Space Operations Center (ESOC) Space Weather Applications Scientist, said, "What I love most about this video is that you can see this beautiful, purple Aurora, more clearly visible when intense geomagnetic thunderstorms."
Auroral dynamics is the movement of this swirly structure within space and time.
Laurens explained that the aurora is the result of complex drivers operating in distant magnetosphere. This makes it an effective tool for monitoring space weather conditions.
It is crucial to understand the auroral dynamics in order to understand the relationship between the magnetosphere and ionosphere. These two are connected by lines of magnetic force.
There are many spacecraft that keep an eye on our Sun: The Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Parker Solar Probe are just a few of the instruments scientists use to study our star and its effects on our planet.
Ground observation, such as all-sky cameras are vital for understanding complex and sometimes dangerous interactions between Earth and Sun.
An initial look at the M1.6 solar flare eruption with the assistance of STCE/SIDC and SDO
This beautiful eruption is most likely the result of an earth-directed CME launched into space. Coronagraph imagery will provide more information. pic.twitter.com/1aCUAQGILK SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) October 9, 2021
Since the International Geophysical Year 1957-1958 all-sky cameras were in use in Kiruna. A digital all-sky camera was in operation since 2001. The Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) includes the Kiruna Atmospheric and Geophysical Observatory.
Although most of the solar wind is blocked in Earth's protective magneticosphere, some charged particles are trapped in Earth’s magnetic field. They flow down to the geomagnetic poles and collide with the upper atmosphere to create beautiful auroras.
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