Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Auroral Ring




















http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_050919.html

The aurora australis rings the Earth’s south pole in this view from space.

Also known as Southern lights, the aurora australis shown here were observed in the ultraviolet range of the light spectrum by the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft.

The ghostly light show was triggered by solar particles spewed from the sun during series of flares that began on Sept. 7. A particularly active sunspot, known as AR 798, produced nine X-class solar flares – the most powerful type of flares – during that series, though they had little effect on Earth aside from brief radio blackouts, NASA officials said.

The latest solar flares made September 2005 the most active month of the sun since March 1991, with the Sept. 7 flare – classified as an X-17 event – the fifth largest ever observed.

A NASA movie compiled from IMAGE’s solar flare observations is available here.
http://www.nasa.gov/mov/133778main_FUV_640x480.mov

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home