Aurora Borealis?

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A 5 YeaR Old
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Aurora Borealis?

Post by A 5 YeaR Old »

Is this the Aurorae Borealis?

Image

i dunno whether the BB code (I am more used to HTML) above will work or not, if it cannot work, see the picture at http://img13.exs.cx/img13/8919/nlights.jpg
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fizzy123
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Post by fizzy123 »

I think wat u take is not a aurorae Borealis. It looks like more like sun light being diffracted by the water vapour in the atmosphere.

Northern lights originate from our sun. During large explosions and flares, huge quantities of solar particles are thrown out of the sun and into deep space. These plasma clouds travel through space with speeds varying from 300 to 1000 kilometers per second.
But even with such speeds (over a million kilometer per hour), it takes these plasma clouds two to three days to reach our planet. When they are closing in on Earth, they are captured by Earth's magnetic field (the magnetosphere) and guided towards Earth's two magnetic poles; the geomagnetic south pole and the geomagnetic north pole.
On their way down towards the geomagnetic poles, the solar particles are stopped by Earth's atmosphere, which acts as an effective shield against these deadly particles.
When the solar particles are stopped by the atmosphere, they collide with the atmospheric gases present, and the collision energy between the solar particle and the gas molecule is emitted as a photon - a light particle. And when you have many such collisions, you have an aurora - lights that may seem to move across the sky.

you will know that the northern lights occur in a circular band around the geomagnetic north pole, and this band is known as the northern lights oval. It stretches on Earth's nightside (the side of Earth not pointing toward the sun).

Northern parts of the Nordic countries
Norway
Svalbard (which belongs to Norway)
Sweden
Finland
Iceland
Greenland (which belongs to Denmark)
Northern Siberia (which belongs to Russia)
Northern Canada
Northern Alaska (which belongs to USA)

Thus if u took the photo in Singapore it is not Aurora :wink: 8) :lol:
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Post by A 5 YeaR Old »

i didnt take this photo, my teacher took this photo when he was on holiday in norway. I never thought that its a aurora because they are usually found near the poles. But during the time when he took this photo, it was during the time the sun had powerful solar flares thus i think that the aurora oval moved south.

Anyway, i tell him that.
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shoelevy
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Post by shoelevy »

its obviously not the aurora
its refraction of sunlight by the clouds
and its so bright
you can't see the aurora with such light
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gwenyi
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Post by gwenyi »

i dun think auroras have that many colours cramped together. most of the auroras appear to be bright red and green and span over very large areas of the sky.
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QuantumGravity
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Post by QuantumGravity »

Yes, i agree. Auroras usually can be seen clearly during the night but i'm not too sure how it would look like during the day. And the picture shows the light spectrum - from red and all the way to blue - unlike auroras which have blue, red, green, or whatever colours depending on what atoms or molecules of gas the charged solar particle collides with.
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weixing
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Post by weixing »

Hi,
I think the image may be taken inside a car through the glass. Look at the image of the link... you will see reflection of something(??) at the right side of the image. If the image is really taken inside a car, I just wonder is it possible that the "rainbow" may be cause by the glass. :?:

Anyway, I don't think that is auroras... I haven't seen one myself, but it doesn't look like any of the auroras pictures I had seen.

Have a nice day.
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Airconvent
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Post by Airconvent »

yup...auroras are quite dim, so you will not be able to see it in daylight. also, you need longer exposures to bring it out..
I have taken a similar photo on the way to Mersing...
Here is the link (you need to be logged in to the singastro@yahoogroups to be able to be able to see it...)

http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/si ... %26.view=t
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Post by A 5 YeaR Old »

It is taken inside a moving train
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Airconvent
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Post by Airconvent »

For those who can't see my image, I have attached it here. Taken from the car with windows winded down...

rich
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