(ORDO NEWS) — An astronomer from New Zealand managed to capture an unusual phenomenon – during the aurora over the country, a red arc appeared in the sky.
Previously, experts assumed that such phenomena could occur, but now they have received irrefutable evidence that strange things can happen directly during the auroras.
This may provide new information about what is happening in space around the Earth during a geomagnetic storm.
Auroras can appear not only in the Northern, but also in the Southern Hemisphere. They are the result of the interaction of our planet’s magnetosphere with streams of charged particles emitted by the Sun. These phenomena become stronger under the influence of magnetic storms.
Ian Griffin, during another magnetic storm, was able to record an extremely unusual transformation of the aurora over New Zealand. It turned into a red arc.
Physicists have called the unusual phenomenon the red arc of the aurora. This was the first time her existence could be confirmed. It is worth noting that the red arc soon turned into a very thin arc of blue and white.
The reason for this is an increase in the rate of thermal radiation. He was first heard about five years ago.
The arcs may remind observers of standard aurorae, but they actually result from completely different physical processes.
American scientists, Bea Gallardo-Lacour from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Carlos Martinis from Boston University, conducted a thorough analysis of the images provided by the New Zealand scientists.
They also compared them with those images that were obtained using satellites, as well as various ground-based telescopes. The study showed that in the upper atmosphere, solar plasma can change some of its properties.
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