More auroras in The Grand Solar Minimum

Photo from spaceweather.com

 

As our sun heads into a deep slumber, coronal holes will be on the rise and that will allow more solar wind to impact our atmosphere with highly charged particles. These beautiful aurora’s will light up skies in the north as a result. Here is a small exert from spaceweather.com :

AN EXPLOSION OF AURORAS OVER FINLAND: As predicted, a stream of solar wind brushed against Earth’s magnetic field during the early hours of March 4th. First contact with the gaseous material ignited bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. “The entire sky exploded in green, with fast moving auroras, full of needles and even a few purple fringes!” reports tour guide Rayann Elzein, who sends this picture from Inari, Finland:

“The bright Moon could not do anything to disturb the show,” he adds. “I heard several loud wows from my guests, and I knew the evening was a big success.”

The solar wind came from a northern hole in the sun’s atmosphere. Most of the gaseous material sailed north of our planet, but the initial impulse of the grazing stream was enough to cause bright polar auroras. Another, similar stream of solar wind is expected to reach Earth on March 7th or 8th, and more auroras are likely at that time.

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