by APOD Robot » Tue Sep 15, 2015 4:08 am
A Spiral Aurora over Iceland
Explanation: What's happened to the sky?
Aurora! Captured late last month, this
aurora was noted by
Icelanders for its great brightness and quick development. The
aurora resulted from a solar storm, with high energy particles bursting out from the Sun and through a
crack in Earth's protective
magnetosphere a few days later. Although a spiral pattern can be discerned, creative humans might imagine the complex glow as an atmospheric
apparition of any number
of common icons. In the foreground of the featured image is the
Ölfusá River, while the lights illuminate a bridge in
Selfoss City. Just beyond the low clouds is a nearly full Moon. The
liveliness of the Sun -- and the
resulting auroras on Earth -- is slowly diminishing as the Sun emerges from a
Solar maximum of surface activity and
evolves towards a historically more quite period in its 11-year cycle. In fact, solar astronomers are
waiting to see if the
coming Solar minimum will be as unusually quiet as the
last one, where sometimes months would go by with
no discernible sunspots or other active solar phenomena.
[/b]
[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150915.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_150915.jpg[/img] [size=150]A Spiral Aurora over Iceland[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] What's happened to the sky? [url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/gallery/aurora-index.html]Aurora[/url]! Captured late last month, this [url=http://asahi-classroom.gi.alaska.edu/aurfaq.htm]aurora[/url] was noted by [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland]Iceland[/url]ers for its great brightness and quick development. The [url=http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=29&month=08&year=2015]aurora[/url] resulted from a solar storm, with high energy particles bursting out from the Sun and through a [url=http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/03dec_magneticcracks/]crack[/url] in Earth's protective [url=http://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics/focus-areas/magnetosphere-ionosphere/]magnetosphere[/url] a few days later. Although a spiral pattern can be discerned, creative humans might imagine the complex glow as an atmospheric [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia]apparition[/url] of any number [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140429.html]of[/url] [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120124.html]common[/url] [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121003.html]icons[/url]. In the foreground of the featured image is the [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvz6Tzm9Vds]Ölfusá River[/url], while the lights illuminate a bridge in [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y00StWk1p2g]Selfoss City[/url]. Just beyond the low clouds is a nearly full Moon. The [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141022.html]liveliness of the Sun[/url] -- and the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150803.html]resulting auroras on Earth[/url] -- is slowly diminishing as the Sun emerges from a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_maximum]Solar maximum[/url] of surface activity and [url=http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/images/ssn_predict_l.gif]evolves towards[/url] a historically more quite period in its 11-year cycle. In fact, solar astronomers are [url=http://blog.ljcfyi.com/images/2010/april2010/dogDoorway.jpg]waiting to see[/url] if the [url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/solarcycle-primer.html]coming Solar[/url] minimum will be as unusually quiet as the [url=http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/01apr_deepsolarminimum/]last one[/url], where sometimes months would go by with [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080924.html]no discernible sunspots[/url] or other active solar phenomena.
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