how is the aurora borealis related to science?

Answer 1

it's astronomy which is a science

Answer 2

It's ionized particles in the atmosphere caused by emmissions from the sun.

Answer 3

When the northern lights are seen over Tromsø, it happens in a set pattern, although this pattern varies considerably. The outbursts starts with a phosphorocent glow over the horizon in north west. The glow dies out and comes back, and then an arch is lit. It drifts up over in the sky. And new arches are lit and follow the first one. Small waves and curls move along the arches. (Picture 1).

Then within a few minutes a dramatic change is seen in the sky. A hailstorm of particles hit the upper atmosphere in what is called an auroral sub-storm. Rays of light shoot down from space, forming draperies which spread all over the sky. And they really remind us of draperies or curtains which are flickering in the wind. And you can see a violet and a red trimming at the lower and upper ends. Or the colours are mixed all together, woven into each other. The curtains are disappearing and forming all over again by new rays of light shooting down from space. Above our head we cans sen rays going out in all directions forming what is called an auroral corona. After 10 to 20 minutes the storm is over and the activity decreases. The bands are spread out, disintegrating in a diffuse light all over the sky. We can not see individual pockets of light, but the total effect is bright enough to enable us to make out details of the countryside around us. If we look very carefully, we can see the remains of the northern lights display as faint, pulsating flames. Clouds of light which is turned on and off regularly every 5 - 10 seconds as though by an electric light-switch. The natures own gigantic light-show is over.

What causes the northern lights?

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To answer this, we start with the sun whose energy production is far from even and fluctuates on an 11 year cycle. Maximum production coincides with high sunspot activity when processes on the sun's surface throw particles far out in space. These particles are called the solar wind and cause the northern lights.
The sun's surface temperature is approximately 6,000 0C, much cooler than the interior which is several million degrees. In the sun's atmosphere or corona, the temperature rises again to several million degrees. At such temperatures, collisions between gas particles can be so violent that atoms disintegrate into electrons and nuclei. What was once hydrogen becomes a gas of free electrons and protons called plasma. This plasma escapes from the sun's corona through a hole in the sun's magnetic field. As they escape, they are thrown out by the rotation of the sun in an ever widening spiral - the so-called garden-hose effect. The name originates from the pattern of water droplets formed if we swing a garden hose around and around above out heads.
The earth's magnetic field

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After 2-5 days' travel trough space, the plasma reaches the earth's magnetic field compressing it on the daylight side of the earth, and stretches it into a "tail" on the nightside. A few of the particles penetrate down to the earth along the lines of magnetic field in the polar areas. Most, however, are forced around the earth by the magnetic field and enter the "tail" which stretches out into a long cylinder. Its diameter is equivalent to 30-60 times the earth's radius, and its length up to 1000 times the same radius. It is, in effect, as if the earth's magnetic field creates a tunnel in the plasma current from the solar wind. Inside one end is the earth, and around its surface the earth's magnetism and the solar wind interact.
The magnetic tail is divided into two by a sheet of plasma. The magnetic field lines from the earth's north and south pole stretch out in their respective halves such that the fields are in opposition. The electrons and protons in each half of the plasma rotate in opposite direction forming a huge "dynamo" with the positive pole on the side of the plasma sheet facing dawn and the negative pole facing evening. The "dynamo" is driven by the current of charged particles between the two poles.



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Answer 4

You can't be serious?