Skywatchers across North America and Europe were treated to dazzling auroras on Sunday. The colourful northern lights lit up the sky and put up a magnificent show as far south as Greece and Turkey.
The colourful aurora display was triggered by a strong geomagnetic storm that peaked as a strong G3 storm on Nov 5 at 12:40 pm EST on the 5-grade scale used by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The 5-grade scale ranges from G1 (minor) on the low end to G5 (extreme) on the high end.
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Geomagnetic storms triggered auroras across North America and Europe
Sunday’s auroras were triggered by a strong geomagnetic storm. A geomagnetic storm is a disturbance to Earth’s magnetic field caused by solar material from coronal mass ejections (CME). CMEs are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s atmosphere.
This particular geomagnetic storm of G3 magnitude was triggered by not one but two CMEs that slammed into Earth on Nov 4 and Nov 5, as per spaceweather.com.
During such a storm, energised particles from the Sun slam into Earth’s atmosphere at speeds as high as up to 45 million miles per hour (72 million km/h). Earth’s magnetic field further forces the particles toward the poles.
The supercharging of molecules in Earth’s atmosphere riggers the colourful spectacles, which usually remain limited to areas at high latitudes for the northern lights and low latitudes for the southern lights.
Stunning images of northern lights
Check out some of the incredible pictures captured by people and posted on social media on Sunday across Canada, the US, and Europe.
Some people were even able to capture STEVE. STEVE is an aurora-like glow that often accompanies the northern lights which is a very distinct phenomenon, as per the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
The acronym STEVE stands for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. It is caused by streams of gas snaking through Earth’s magnetosphere. When these streams are energised by geomagnetic storms they emit light.
(With inputs from agencies)
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2023-11-07 10:01:26Z
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