aurora borealis?

Question

I have to do a scale drawing of the earth's atmosphere. The scale is 1 mm=3 km. I want to put a picture of the aurora borealis on here. How big should it be and where should it go to? Should i start at the Karman line (100 km) and go up? Where should i go up to? I really need to know at what height above the earth's surface a typical aurora borealis begins and also at what height above the earth's surface a typical one ends? Where should I start drawing it and where should I end it? If you can give me numbers in km, that'll be great, but other units are alright also. I am asking because I've found very different numbers, such as 97 km-1000 km and 90 km -130 km. Also where should meteors go? For meteors I've found 80 km-110 km, 80 km-120km, and 65 km-135km. The last one is height of ablation. Which one is correct?

Answer 1

Hi. From the web. ""The aurora currents flow down into the ionosphere on one side of the pole and out on the other. In between, some of the current connects directly through the ionospheric E layer (125 km); the rest ("region 2") detours, leaving again through field lines closer to the equator and closing through the "partial ring current" carried by magnetically trapped plasma."" This would indicate a height of 125 plus or minus.

Meteors are not generally understood well. Most people think the glow is caused by air friction, but it starts as a diesel effect. The air in front gets pressurized to the point where the air itself glows and gets ionized. The material of the meteor ablates away until it slows or burns up or explodes. Hard to put a definate height on the limits. Hope this helps.