Northern Lights Alert!! <<>> NASA Creation <<>> Canyon Shaped Coronal Hole Spewing Solar Wind To Earth
I don't think northern lights are visible in Tucson, Arizona.
A gaseous canyon has opened up in the sun's atmosphere, and it is spewing solar wind toward Earth. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is monitoring the structure, shown here in an extreme ultraviolet image taken on March 25th:
This is a canyon-shaped example of a coronal hole--a place in the sun's atmosphere where the magnetic field spreads apart and allows solar wind to escape. In the false-color image, above, the coronal hole is colored deep-blue, while the flow of solar wind is indicated by white arrows.
A stream of solar wind flowing from the canyon should reach Earth on March 28-29. There's a good chance its arrival will bring auroras. The reason is, the stream will be preceded by a co-rotating interaction region or "CIR." CIRs are transition zones between slow- and fast-moving solar wind streams. Solar wind plasma piles up in these regions, producing density gradients and shock waves that do a good job of sparking Northern Lights.
Northern Lights Alert!! <<>> NASA Creation <<>> Canyon Shaped Coronal Hole Spewing Solar Wind To Earth
I don't think northern lights are visible in Tucson, Arizona.
A gaseous canyon has opened up in the sun's atmosphere, and it is spewing solar wind toward Earth. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is monitoring the structure, shown here in an extreme ultraviolet image taken on March 25th:
This is a canyon-shaped example of a coronal hole--a place in the sun's atmosphere where the magnetic field spreads apart and allows solar wind to escape. In the false-color image, above, the coronal hole is colored deep-blue, while the flow of solar wind is indicated by white arrows.
A stream of solar wind flowing from the canyon should reach Earth on March 28-29. There's a good chance its arrival will bring auroras. The reason is, the stream will be preceded by a co-rotating interaction region or "CIR." CIRs are transition zones between slow- and fast-moving solar wind streams. Solar wind plasma piles up in these regions, producing density gradients and shock waves that do a good job of sparking Northern Lights.