Las impresionantes auroras boreales

por yahoo

Disfrutar del espectáculo de una aurora boreal puede ser una de esas experiencias que serán imposibles de borrar de tu mente. Estos fotográfos de Flickr nos traen un pedazo de esta maravilla bautizada por Galileo Galilei.

 

 Foto de Terje Lein-Mathisen/Flickr mar, 4 feb 2014

Las auroras se forman a causa de las partículas solares que desencandenan la actividad geomagnética de la Tierra. Aparecen como por arte de magia en nuestro cielo y permiten que te deleites con uno de los fenómenos naturales más impresionantes del mundo.

 

Podemos encontrarlas entre los meses de septiembre a marzo, siempre y cuando el frío acompañe al cielo despejado. El norte de Noruega, de Suecia o de Finlandia son algunos de los mejores destinos para poder verlas. Se caracterizan por sus colores fluorescentes y sus formas onduladas que se entremezclan con el cielo estrellado del norte. 

 

Si estás pensando disfrutar de esta maravilla natural, no olvides que se pueden predecir con hasta tres dias de antelación, y que enero y febrero son los meses con mayor actividad.

 

 

Fuente:  noticias.yahoo.com/fotos/2014

 

 

Información: 

 

AURORA BOREALIS FULL [HD] VIDEO - Vangelis - Rachel's Song - NORTHERN LIGHTS- Blade Runner theme 

 

"Aurora Borealis" and "Aurora Australis" Aurora boreal /polar

 

An aurora (plural: aurorae or auroras; from the Latin word aurora, "dawn") is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere (thermosphere). The charged particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and, on Earth, are directed by the Earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere. Aurora is classified as diffuse or discrete aurora. Most aurorae occur in a band known as the auroral zone, which is typically 3° to 6° in latitudinal extent and at all local times or longitudes. The auroral zone is typically 10° to 20° from the magnetic pole defined by the axis of the Earth's magnetic dipole. During a geomagnetic storm, the auroral zone will expand to lower latitudes. The diffuse aurora is a featureless glow in the sky which may not be visible to the naked eye even on a dark night and defines the extent of the auroral zone. The discrete aurorae are sharply defined features within the diffuse aurora which vary in brightness from just barely visible to the naked eye to bright enough to read a newspaper at night. Discrete aurorae are usually observed only in the night sky because they are not as bright as the sunlit sky. Aurorae occasionally occur poleward of the auroral zone as diffuse patches[3] or arcs (polar cap arcs, which are generally invisible to the naked eye.

In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis (or the northern lights), named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas, by Pierre Gassendi in 1621. Auroras seen near the magnetic pole may be high overhead, but from farther away, they illuminate the northern horizon as a greenish glow or sometimes a faint red, as if the Sun were rising from an unusual direction. Discrete aurorae often display magnetic field lines or curtain-like structures, and can change within seconds or glow unchanging for hours, most often in fluorescent green. The aurora borealis most often occurs near the equinoctes. The northern lights have had a number of names throughout history. The Cree call this phenomenon the "Dance of the Spirits". In Europe, in the Middle Ages, the auroras were commonly believed a sign from God.

Its southern counterpart, the aurora australis (or the southern lights), has almost identical features to the aurora borealis and changes simultaneously with changes in the northern auroral zone and is visible from high southern latitudes in Antarctica, South America, New Zealand, and Australia.
 

Aurorae occur on other planets. Similar to the Earth's aurora, they are visible close to the planet's magnetic poles.

Modern style guides recommend that the names of meteorological phenomena, such as aurora borealis, be uncapitalized.

Auroras result from emissions of photons in the Earth's upper atmosphere, above 80 km (50 mi), from ionized nitrogen atoms regaining an electron, and oxygen and nitrogen atoms returning from an excited state to ground state.[9] They are ionized or excited by the collision of solar wind and magnetospheric particles being funneled down and accelerated along the Earth's magnetic field lines; excitation energy is lost by the emission of a photon, or by collision with another atom or molecule: oxygen emissions green or brownish-red, depending on the amount of energy absorbed. nitrogen emissions blue or red; blue if the atom regains an electron after it has been ionized, red if returning to ground state from an excited state.

Oxygen is unusual in terms of its return to ground state: it can take three quarters of a second to emit green light and up to two minutes to emit red. Collisions with other atoms or molecules will absorb the excitation energy and prevent emission. Because the very top of the atmosphere has a higher percentage of oxygen and is sparsely distributed such collisions are rare enough to allow time for oxygen to emit red. Collisions become more frequent progressing down into the atmosphere, so that red emissions do not have time to happen, and eventually even green light emissions are prevented.

 
Auroras are associated with the solar wind, a flow of ions continuously flowing outward from the Sun.

   

Publicado el 4/10/2012 por   aurevlis